Tormented Souls
by OhJay
Summary: Anime verse. Ed ends up in nineteenth century Germany with his father instead of the 1920's. Do to some recent circumstances Ed meets the millennium Earl as well as Allen Walker and the other exorcists, then fate changes everything.T for violence EdxWinry
1. I Death

_**I Death**_

The sound of violent coughing could be heard throughout the whole apartment, but no one walked in to make sure he was ok. Occasionally it would stop and be replaced with heavy breathing, but sooner or later it would start back up again. Other than that and the ticking of the clock it was quiet. Eighteen year old Edward Elric sat in his room reading trying to drown out the noise. He was used to his father's coughing, but it only got worse.

"Son...Come here" he heard Hoenheim say weakly.

Hearing that he stood up and quietly made his way across the hall. The door was cracked open, and he took a deep breath as he prepared himself for the stench as he opened the door and walked into his father's room.

"Yes dad?"

It had been about two years since the two of them had come through the gate against their will and ended up in a parallel world. They had ended up in 19th century Germany, and while Ed began looking for a way to get back to Amestris Hoenheim had kept his promise and stayed in his current body.

So now here was seeing his father on his death bed. His body has continued to rot, and he didn't have much time left. Ed could tell easily of course. The smell of his rotting body could be found all over the apartment, but it was the strongest in his room. He had tried to cover it up with cologne, but the two didn't go well together and the combination made Ed nauseous. He was also noticeably pale and thin, and he had been coughing up blood non stop for the past few days.

"You know I don't have much time left in this body"

Ed lowered his head and nodded silently.

"I want to give you something before I go"

He paused to cough into a bloody handkerchief, then pointed one of his black rotted hands towards the bookcase.

"Fifth shelf, black book in the middle"

Ed walked over and frowned slightly as he stood on his tip toes to take out the book he was talking about. As he looked at it he noticed there seemed to be something stuck in between two pages so he took it out. It was a small brass key.

"It goes to the middle drawer of my desk; the contents are yours"

Ed stuck the key into the middle drawer of the wooden desk and turned it until it opened. There were a few leather bound notebooks inside, as well as a small white wooden box and an object wrapped up tightly in cloth.

"Those are my important research notes, they might be able to help you"

Ed nodded and opened the box, but all that was inside of it was ash.

"That's all that's left of Envy's remains. I hate to ask you to bear my own sin, but you did say you saw him come through the gate as well so he could find you"

"Don't worry, I'll take care of him"

He put the lid back on the box and put it back, then reached for the object. Thinking it was fragile he undid the cloth slowly and carefully. Once he saw what it was his eyes widened and his hand began to tremble. It was a Philosopher's Stone, and judging by it's size it contained hundreds if not a few thousand souls.

"It's your choice to use it or not, but use it wisely if you do"

Ed nodded and placed the stone in his pocket.

"Dad...I forgive you"

Hoenheim's eyes widened in a bit of surprise and happiness, then he smiled and closed his eyes for the last time.

"Give Al...My regards" he said softly.

"Say hi to mom for me"

A few days later the funeral was held. It was rather small considering that didn't know man people in the world they were stuck in, but it was still a sad day. Ed was the last one to leave, but he quietly stood there in front of the grave for a while. It was quiet, then a voice spoke.

"I could bring him back for you"

Ed turned to see a tall (to him) overweight man with an oddly big smile holding out his hand to him. He had gray skin and pointy ears, and just by that Ed guess he wasn't fully human.

"No thanks" he said turning away.

The man just blinked and stood there not believing what he had just heard.

"No? What do you mean 'No'? Don't you want him back?"

Ed shrugged.

"Not really"

_What's with this kid?_ He thought.

"Don't get me wrong, I do miss him, but he's finally at peace with mom now. I think part of him wanted to die"

"Than how about someone else?" he tried not giving up.

"Your mother maybe? Or-

"**I SAID NO!" **Ed yelled in his face.

"Life only flows in one direction and humans aren't supposed to be brought back to life!"

Images from that night he tried the forbidden came flooding back to him and he subconsciously held his right arm.

"Believe me I learned that the hard way" he said softly.

Then he turned away again and started walking down the hill.

"My advice come back to me about eight years ago, would've saved me a lot of trouble"

With that he left the man standing there confused and irritated, but he simply moved on to someone else and continued to create Akuma.

_**Author's Notes**_

Yet another crossover, but I like them ^_^ Now here's just some little things you need to know:

Timeline: FMA wise this is two years after the FIRST anime, so in other words this will have a few similarities with the movie. DGM wise...I haven't really decided yet. I haven't finished the anime yet (on the last season) and I do plan to start the manga at some point too but I may not get around to it for a while...

With that said and done there are a few minor changes (mostly FMA wise) that I'm making: Al has not lost any part of his memory, Izumi is not going to die, Mustang did not go all depressed and emo like he did in the movie, Amestris is still run by a Fuhrer (Not Bradley), and last and definitely not least alchemy DID exist in the DGM/our world.

All of those will be important at one point or another. That's all for now, and I hope you guys like it so far ^_^ Please review.


	2. II Exorcists and Innocence

_**II Exorcists and Innocence **_

"A grave?"

Fifteen year old Allen Walker stood on the paperwork covered floor with another exorcist he wasn't to fond of: Yu Kanda. They were both in chief Kamui's office and were getting briefed on the mission they were supposed to go on together.

"Yes, a grave. About a week ago a strange gravestone was found in Germany. Apparently a man named 'Hoenheim of Light' died recently at about four hundred years old. It could be a mistake or some kind of joke, but it is possible that innocence could be involved"

"How are we supposed to find out if a dead guy had innocence?" Kanda asked coldly.

"Apparently he had a son"

Kamui handed Allen a picture of Ed. It was a recent picture, with Ed in brown slacks with a matching vest over a white long sleeved shirt. He had his long blonde hair in a pony tail, but what stood out to them were his golden eyes.

"The finders in Munich have been keeping an eye on him, but it's like he knows he's being watched. He won't let anyone get close to him"

"So you want us to see if he has any connection to innocence?" Allen asked.

"Yes."

"But why do both of us need to go?" asked Kanda.

"There have been many Akuma sighted in that town, and if only one of you go then it could mean trouble if they outnumber you greatly"

So now the two exorcists were headed towards Munich, Germany to talk to none other than Edward Elric.

It had been about a week since the funeral. Ed hadn't forgotten about the incident with the Earl in the cemetery, but he didn't let it bother him. He worked on cracking the code of Hoenheim's notebooks, which was surprisingly harder than Marcoh's. Of course this just gave more motivation since he knew if it was as hard as it was it had to be valuable research. Then there was his job torturing some kids in the city. Their ages ranged from grade school to even college students, but he was a genius after all. He got enough money to pay the bills and take care of himself, and whatever he didn't need went into the bank.

It was late morning when someone knocked on the door. Ed was at his desk in his room working on the notebooks when he heard it. He knew it probably wasn't the landlord since he always paid everything on time, and he doubted it was another student, so he just ignored it. However a moment later they knocked again. He sighed as he stood up and made sure that both of his hands were gloves before he headed towards the door.

"Alright alright, I'm coming. Shesh"

Two teenage boys stood outside the apartment in what seemed to be some sort of black coat uniform. One had white hair and a strange red mark around his left eye. He was slightly taller than Ed, but looked about his age or a bit younger. The other one was taller and looked older with dark blue hair that he wore in a high ponytail, but with some of his hair hanging in the front. Ed frowned a bit when he saw him knowing that he probably was Mustang's doppelganger*.

"Can I help you?"

He tried not to sound rude, but he didn't sound very polite either.

"Are you Edward Elric?"

"Yeah, why?"

"We'd like to ask you a few questions about your father" said Kanda.

_God he even sounds like Mustang**. It's him alright._

Ed sighed.

"You two aren't with any kind of military are you?" Ed asked noticing the uniform.

"No we're exorcists from the Black Order" said Allen.

He didn't really know what he was talking about, but he didn't see any harm in letting them in.

"You can come in but it smells" Ed said as he opened the door for them.

He had kept all the windows open to air the place out, so it didn't smell as bad as it did before, but it was still pretty bad.

"God what died in here?" Kanda said as he walked in.

Ed wanted to make a comeback to the doppelganger of his disliked superior officer, but he kept his mouth shut.

"So what do you want to know?" Ed asked as he sat down at the dinning room table.

"Was your father really four hundred years old?" asked Allen as he took the other seat at the table leaving Kanda standing.

_I really shouldn't have put his real birth date on that thing. _

"If it's immortality you're after it doesn't exist" Ed said sternly.

"You didn't answer the question" Kanda said coldly.

Ed shot a glare at him already not liking him, but ignored his attitude and turned back to Allen.

"I was never sure of his exact age, but yes he was about four hundred"

"Are you at all familiar with innocence or exorcists?"

"No, you'll have to fill me in"

"Exorcists are people that are chosen by God to use innocence to destroy Akuma and stop the Millennium Earl and the Noah family from ending humanity. There have been a few cases of innocence extending a persons life if they get a hold of it, but they die once they loose it" Allen explained.

"Well I can tell you now neither of us have been in contact with this innocence stuff"

"Then how do you explain your father's age?" asked Kanda.

"I'm sorry but I can't go into the details. What he did wasn't exactly forbidden, but it shouldn't be repeated"

"I understand, but if you could just tell us the basics so we know for sure that innocence isn't related then it would help us" said Allen.

Ed sighed. He could work around the details if he needed to.

"Are either of you familiar with alchemy?" he asked.

"Alchemy? That art died out centuries ago" said Kanda.

"You're forgetting my father's age. About four hundred years ago he became a pretty good alchemist, then found a way to extend his life on accident"

"Can you show us?" Allen asked.

"We don't have time for that" said Kanda.

Ed shot him another glare, but this time Kanda returned it. Allen noticed this so he changed the subject.

"Anyway, Edward-

"Just call me Ed"

"Alright. Have you noticed anything strange going on? People getting attacked by monsters or anything?"

"Actually I have heard some weird rumors around town about stuff like that, they started about a week ago"

Ed's eyes widened as he realized it was about the same time that man came to him in the cemetery. There had to be a connection.

"What is it?" Allen asked noticing Ed's sudden reaction.

"The day of my dad's funeral this guy came to me in the cemetery and offered me to bring him back to life"

"You saw the Millennium Earl?"

"What did you say to him?"

Ed was a bit surprised at their reactions, but told them the truth.

"I told him no, yelled at him a bit, then left"

Allen blinked and sighed from relief that Ed wasn't planning on accepting the Earl's offer. He decided to tell him about the Millennium Earl and Akuma just so he would know.

_Even in this world people try and bring others back to life._

"It's a good thing you refused, otherwise you'd be dead" said Kanda.

"Why did you refuse his offer anyway?" Allen asked curiously.

"I figured there was some sort of catch, and his soul is finally at peace now anyway"

"We better get going" said Kanda as he headed towards the door.

"Thanks Ed, and be careful around here" said Allen.

"Will do"

Later that day Ed went out for one of his torturing appointments. It went well as always, and when he was done he walked back to the apartment. However on the way there he noticed a few things. One; everyone seemed to be inside, and for the middle of the day in a busy city that was a bit unusual, and two; he was being followed.

His conscience told him it was a bad idea as he ducked into a nearby alley, but he had to know who it was and why. Before his stalker could catch up to him he climbed up onto the fire escape of a building then waited for him to come. It was a man, and as soon as he came into view Ed jumped down on him knocking him over and pinning him to the ground.

"Alright, who are you and why are you following me?" he demanded.

The man didn't answer. Instead his expression changed from calm to that of a crazy murderer. Then he shoved Ed into a wall and his form changed into a monster: He was a level two Akuma. His eyes widened as he realized what it was, and that he couldn't fight it off.

"Where's the innocence?" it demanded.

"I don't have it!"

_Damn it! Allen said normal weapons won't work against it._

He slowly reached into his pocket with his left hand and pulled out a pocket knife.

_According to dad's notes I should be able to use alchemy here with a bit of blood._

He quickly cut his finger then clapped his hands and placed them on the Akuma.

_If there's a soul bonded to this thing and holding it all together then I should be able to break that bond. It's just like Al in a way._

Once the Akuma appeared around town Allen and Kanda had sprang into action and began destroying them. They were oblivious to Ed in the alley with a level two until Allen's eye saw it.

"**ED!"**

He was about to go help him when Ed placed his hands on the monster and it exploded. The two exorcists stared at him in surprise as Allen saw go free and float up to heaven. They didn't know if Ed had been lying to them about innocence, or if he just didn't know he had it. One thing was for sure though: They were taking him back to the black order.

_**Author's Notes**_

Before any of you say anything about Ed being able to destroy Akuma, THIS IS FANFICTION, I can do what I want. Also, something I forgot to mention was Amestrian and English are the same language in this story.

*If you don't get it, pull up a picture of Kanda and picture him with short hair. Doesn't he look like Mustang?

** Travis Willingham does the English voice for both Mustang and Kanda.


	3. III Allies

_**III Allies**_

"Tell me why I'm coming with you again?"

"You destroyed that Akuma earlier, the Black Order will want to see you"

Ed sighed. He and Allen were on a train and headed towards the exorcists headquarters while Kanda had left and gone straight to his next assignment.

_I don't have time for this! I'm trying to get home!_

However he was interested in innocence and it's powers, and he thought it might help him in some way. Things got pretty quiet between them, so Ed gazed out the window and watched the landscape go by.

"I don't believe in god by the way" he said.

Allen blinked.

"You're atheist?"

"Agnostic, most alchemists are"

"If you don't mind me asking, how come?"

"He never showed up when I needed him. He just kept taking things away"

Allen frowned. It sounded like he had been through a lot.

A while later they arrived at the Black Order. Ed was glad Allen said there was another entrance other than climbing up the cliff, and after Ed was scanned and cleared they went inside and straight to Kamui's office.

Ed looked around at all the paperwork that was on the floor and stacked up on Kamui's desk, and he figured Mustang's office would be the same way if Riza wasn't around. Allen explained to Kamui what he saw Ed do, then Ed explained the basics of alchemy to him.

"Allen told me that there's a soul trapped inside an Akuma, so I just broke that bond with alchemy"

"You can actually do that?" Allen asked.

Ed nodded.

"With alchemy pretty much anything is possible as long as you follow equivalent exchange and you know what you're doing"

"Can you give us some sort of demonstration?" Kamui asked.

"Sure"

Ed removed his left glove as he took out his pocket knife and made a small cut on his finger. A loud clap rang out in the room, and he smiled as he felt the energy circulate inside him. Oh how good it felt to use alchemy again. It made him feel closer to home. The room filled with the light of blue energy when he touched the floor, and as it faded they could tell that all the paperwork on the floor was gone, and in the center of the room was a perfect statue of Kamui made out of it.

"Amazing!" Kamui exclaimed as he examined it.

"It's pretty basic, but it's what I could do with what's the room. I could change it back-

"Oh no this is just fine! Those papers weren't very important anyway"

Allen sighed and Ed couldn't help chuckling knowing that he didn't want to have all the paperwork back.

"Well Edward, you may not be an exorcist but we could still use your help. What do you say?"

Ed shrugged.

"As long as I can continue my research while I'm here it's fine with me"

"It's a deal then"

The two firmly shook hands and smiled. Later that day Ed was given a proper welcoming party, and at that moment he was actually happy for once.

_**Author's Notes**_

Yeah I know it's as short as Ed-

Ed: Hey!

Allen: *Chuckles in the background*

Ed: *Glares at Allen* Oh like you're one to talk. I end up taller than you in about six chapters! (At this point Ed is 5'5 and Allen's 5'6)

Allen: What? OhJay is that true?

Yes, now both of you shut up and get out of my AN's!

Ed and Allen: Yes ma'am...*Leaves*

Anyway as I was saying before those two cannons interrupted me, the next to chapters are going to be pretty long so I'll make up for it ^_^ Please review. Also before you guys start complain about Ed joining the Black Order his feelings towards them will change and stuff so wait about two chapters before you get on my ass about this. Thanks.


	4. IV Secrets Revealed

_**IV Secrets Revealed**_

"I'm telling you, I think something's wrong with him" said Lenalee.

"Maybe he's just sick" Lavi suggested.

"Maybe, but he was perfectly fine yesterday"

Ed had been at the order for a few months. He had gotten used to how things were (including the occasional craziness with Kamui and his robots) but he didn't know about some of the bad things that really went on. Everyone knew him as the guy who usually ate as much as Allen and had a short temper , and most people even knew about his alchemic abilities. He had become friends with people like Allen, Lavi, and Lenalee, and avoided people like Kanda. Today he just seemed to be pretty down.

"What's going on?" Allen asked as he walked over.

"Just look over there"

Lavi pointed to Ed in the corner of the cafeteria who was just picking at his food.

"He's barely eaten anything all day, and when I called him a shrimp he didn't react to me at all."

Allen frowned as he looked over at Ed. He seemed pretty depressed, and when he was about to go over and try to talk to him he got up and walked away.

Ed let out a long sigh as he lit a candle in his room. The room was pretty much bare besides a bed and a brown wooden desk that was currently covered with his research notes, but there was also a famed picture of him,Al, and Trisha. When he and Al were on their journey they would light a candle on their mother's birthday as well as the day of her death. He did the same with Hoenheim when they ended up in Germany, but this was the first year when he was alone on this tragic day.

He sighed as he set the candle down in a small bowl of water and watched it float. He would leave it burning the whole day, so he did this so no accidental fires would start. He sat down at his desk, but just stared at the picture and wondered what Al was doing right now. Then his thought were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Can I come in?"

It was Allen.

"Yeah sure"

Ed quickly pulled his gloves on and made sure his sleeves were down while the door opened and he walked in.

"You seem pretty down today, is everything alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine" he lied easily.

Then Allen noticed the picture.

"Is that your mom?"

"Nine years..." he whispered.

"It's been nine years today...I was ten" he finished.

Allen frowned and his expression softened. He knew what he meant.

"I never knew my parents, I was abandoned"

"Because of your arm?"

It wasn't a secret around the Order, Ed had even it in action a few times.

"Yeah..."

Ed subconsciously touched his right arm and wondered if he should tell him, but Allen spoke before he could even open his mouth.

"I never knew you had a brother" he said pointing to Al in the picture.

"Yeah. That's Al, we're a year apart"

Allen smiled.

"Ed and Al. It has a nice ring to it. Where is he now?"

"I'm not really sure, I'm actually trying to find him"

It was the closest thing to the truth he could say. He didn't really like lying to his friends, but if he told him the truth he's be put right in the looney bin...

"Well then I hope you find him. Oh, and on my way here Lavi said Kamui wanted to see us"

"It's probably another assignment then" he said as he stood up.

"I guess we better go see him then"

Ed sighed as he pulled his coat around him tighter. He, Allen, and Lenalee were in northern Germany on an assignment together looking for innocence. Only problem was it wasn't only cold, but also raining making Ed's ports ache even more therefore making him miserable. Currently the three of them were trying to wait it out under the awning of a building, but it just seemed to get worse. Plus all the inns they had gone to were either full of closed.

"So what are we gonna do?" Ed asked.

However before he could get an answer they heard a scream and Allen's left eye activated.

"Akuma!"

Allen quickly activated his innocence along with Lenalee and took the lead while Ed followed as he cut his finger with his pocket knife. Allen led them to an alley where a mother was trying to protect her daughter from the Akuma that surrounded them. Ed quickly clapped his hands and transmuted a wall from the ground while Allen and Lenalee took care of the Akuma.

"Are you alright?" Ed asked as he ran over to them.

As he got closer he got a better look at them. The mother seemed to be in her late twenties, while her daughter only looked six or seven. Both of them had blue eyes and dark brown hair, but while the mother's was short and down casually, her daughter's was long and in two braids. His eyes softened when he realized he had found Nina's doppelganger and her mother.

"That's all of them!" Allen shouted.

Ed nodded as he transmuted the ground back to normal and offered his hand to help them up.

"I can't thank you enough for saving us. Won't you come inside and join us for a bit? It's the least I can do"

"Oh we don't want to intrude-

"Please, I insist"

"Why not guys? It's equivalent exchange" said Ed.

"I'm Rachel, Rachel Tucker. This is my step daughter Nina"

"I'm Allen, and this is Ed and Lenalee"

Rachel nodded, and led them down the street and into a nice average sized house. It was pretty average inside too. There wasn't a family room, but there was a nice wooden stair case that went to the second story, and the kitchen went right into the dinning room.

"There's two guest rooms upstairs so please make yourselves at home. I'll go get some towels so you can dry yourself off, and dinner will be ready soon too"

"Ugh, I'm absolutely soaked" Allen said when he and Ed got to their room.

However as he started to dry himself off with the towels Ed simply clapped his hands and put his hand on his shoulder and he was dry.

"I have to admit Ed, your alchemy is pretty amazing" he said as Ed repeated the process to dry himself.

"It took years of training and practice but it was definitely worth it."

"Did you learn it from your dad?"

"No he wasn't then. I read most of his books on it when I was six, then I got a teacher when I was ten"

"Really what was he like?"

That's when he noticed Ed seemed to be trembling from fear when he mentioned it.

"Was it really that bad?"

"She dropped Al and I off on a deserted island with nothing but the clothes on our backs, a knife, a riddle to solve, and told us to survive for one month without using alchemy. And THAT was just to test us"

Allen blinked. He couldn't even imagine how bad it must've been for him, and it sounded like their teachers were exact opposites.

"Don't get me wrong though, she taught us a lot. Sure we got more than a few scratches and bruises, but I wouldn't be half the alchemist I am today if it wasn't for her. I even got the symbol on my jacket from her"

Since Ed wasn't an exorcist he wasn't required to wear the black coat, so whenever he went out he just wore a brown version of his red trench coat over his clothes.

"Dinner's ready!"

At the mention of food both boys perked up and ran downstairs. Both of their stomachs growled at the sight of the delicious looking food on the table and they sat down.

"Please dig in" said Rachael.

"Thanks!" said Allen.

"I'm afraid mt husband won't be joining us though. He's been so busy in his study that I'm starting to worry about him..."

Ed frowned, but continued to eat. There was just something that he didn't like, but he couldn't figure it out what it was.

"Hey Nina, how old are you?" he asked.

"I'm six and a half!" she said happily.

_It doesn't make sense. Shouldn't the Nina here be about ten? Unless...No, that's not possible._

Later that night he decided to snoop around a little. He was getting a little suspicious, and when everyone else was sleeping he decided to act. He tip toes down the stairs as quietly as he could (which was kind of difficult when you have a metal leg) and looked around for the study. He didn't find it, so he decided to check the basement.

It was pretty dark on the way down, and when he reached the bottom of the steps he saw it was because there was only a single candle lit. There were symbols written all over the walls, and when his eyes adjusted to the dark he realized they were all complex transmutation circles.

"I didn't expect to see you here Edward" said a raspy voice.

Ed stiffened as he recognized the voice and quickly spun around to see none other than Shou Tucker. Anger rose in his chest as he clenched his fist and glared at him.

"Tucker" he spat angrily.

"So you're here too" he finished.

"After my attempt at human transmutation with the stone failed I tried again without it and I ended up here back in my old human form. That's when I found something incredible, something that brought my Nina to life"

_Innocence. It has to be._

"So let me guess: You're trying to get back to Amestris now"

"You always were a smart boy. Now that you're here won't you help me?"

"**WHY THE HELL SHOULD I? I HAVE HALF A MIND TO KILL YOU RIGHT NOW FOR WHAT YOU DID TO NINA IN THE FIRST PLACE!"**

"Oh but what I've done now has made up for it. Even you have made up for your sin by killing the homunculus you created"

Ed clenched his fist until the metal began to creek. He wanted to yell at him and say that he was wrong, that what he did to his daughter couldn't be forgiven, but he actually did have a point.

"Alright, but when we get there I'm turning you in to the military first thing"

Allen woke up when he heard a scream from below. He had slept in his clothes in case they were attacked, but his eye didn't detect any Akuma. He was still worried though so he ran out of the room and saw that Lenalee was also in the hallway.

"Did you hear that?" he asked.

"Yeah it sounded like it came from downstairs"

"Let's go"

What they found in the basement was rather shocking. Ed was standing in the middle of of an elaborate array on the floor, and a large black gate was in front of him. It was open, and dozens of tiny little black hands seemed to reach out for him.

"**ED!"**

But he didn't seem to hear him, instead he actually walked towards the thing. He seemed to be afraid, but at the same time his excitement dulled his fear. He finally could go home, he could finally see Al and Winry again. Shou Tucker had gotten pulled in immediately and was probably done for, but he had the stone in his pocket. If he offered it as "payment" he would get through in one piece and without losing anything. However he didn't get the chance. After he took another step forward Allen had grabbed him from behind and stopped him.

"No! Let me go! **LET ME GO!**"

He was so close, just a few more steps and he would've made it, but Lenalee had helped Allen out so all his struggling didn't work. After a few more minutes the gate had closed, and Ed had missed his chance. Seeing that whatever it had been was gone they Ed go and he fell to his knees. He had been so close , but it had slipped right out of his grasp.

"What was that?" Allen asked.

At first Ed didn't say anything, but then his emotions suddenly went from sadness and disappointment to anger and he shoved Allen against the wall.

"Why the hell did you do that? I would've been perfectly fine! I would've found my little brother damn it!"

Allen didn't really know what to say, but even if he did he wouldn't have been able to. They heard Rachael scream from upstairs as well as gunfire. At the same time Allen's eye activated.

"Akuma"

Ed's anger was quickly forgotten as they all ran upstairs to see little Nina in her nightgown standing and crying in the corner. Akuma had burst through the place, and by guessing by the pile of dust in front of Nina they had killed Rachael.

"Mommy..."

Allen quickly activated his innocence and destroyed them before they could harm her, but his eye told him more were coming.

"We have to get her out of here!"

"As long as there are Akuma around they'll keep coming after her, she's a human doll with innocence!"

"**WHAT?"**

Before he had a moment to explain more Akuma came and tore through the place once again tearing it apart.

"This place is gonna come down! We have to get out of here!"

Ed nodded and quickly picked up Nina before running outside. He was the first one out and was glad it had stopped raining, but he quickly ran into Akuma and was surrounded.

_Damn it!_

Nina began to whimper and cry more I fear as she was in Ed's arms, and Ed knew no matter what he was going to protect her. He wasn't going to let her die again.

"It's ok Nina, your big brother will protect you"

Allen and Lenalee were still inside dealing with the Akuma there, so he knew he was on his own for the moment.

"You! You're that little brat from the cemetery!"

He twitched at the word "Little", then looked up to see the Millennium Earl standing on top of a light post.

"Oh well, it doesn't really matter. **KILL THEM!**"

Without letting go of Nina Ed was able to clap his hands and transmute a few walls to protect them. He had already cut his finger to summon the gate so he didn't have to worry about that for a while, but he knew the walls wouldn't last long, and they were already attacking before he had finished putting them up.

"Are you alright Nina?"

But as he looked over at her he noticed she was now covered with black pentacles: She had been hit.

_Oh no..._

"Thank you for protecting me bigger brother"

Those were her last words before she turned to dust, and Ed was left with only an innocence fragment in his hand. Then the walls gave out and came down on top of him.

"**ED!"**

Allen and Lenalee finally destroyed the rest of the Akuma inside, and once they saw the situation Ed was in they had ran over to help him. They saw the Akuma keep firing at the walls Ed had transmuted until they had come down on him. Together they had quickly destroyed the Akuma around with their innocence before they could do any more damage, but they didn't see that the Earl was near by. They heard Ed cough as he climbed out of the rubble, but what shocked them were the black pentacles all over his right sleeve, and the innocence fragment in his hand.

"Nina..." he whispered.

He had failed to save her once again.

"I didn't know there were any alchemists left, but if you're the last then I guess they're extinct" said the Earl.

There were other Akuma close by, but they all stood still waiting for the Earl's orders. He was waiting to see Ed turn into dust and die, but the pentacles didn't even spread.

"**YOU DAMN BASTARD! I'LL KILL YOU WITH MY OWN TWO HANDS"**

He glared up at the Earl with anger in his chest and rage burning in his eyes. He threw his coat off even knowing that his sleeve underneath was torn, and tossed the innocence over to Allen. His automail was already revealed, so he transmuted his usual blade and charged towards the Earl.

**"****ED NO!"**

**"****KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL!"**

However even as strong and angry as Ed was he couldn't even get to the Earl. The Akuma just kept holding him back. In the end all the Akuma were destroyed, but Ed was exhausted and part of his left pant leg was torn revealing his leg as well. It didn't take long for the Earl to put it all together, especially since he remembered what he had said in the cemetery:

_"Life only flows in one direction and humans aren't supposed to be brought back to life!" _

_"Believe me I learned that the hard way" _

_"My advice come back to me about eight years ago, would've saved me a lot of trouble" _

"I see now! You're arm and leg, you tried to bring someone back to life!"

_**Author's Notes**_

*Collapses over the keyboard* 3,000 words...8 pages...I don't think even any of my research papers have been this long (Yay modified English class!) Anyway that's why it took me a bit to get it up, and since the next chapter isn't fully written (and probably going to be about the same length) it's probably gonna take about a week to finish it, but I will update soon I promise.

Now moving on to more important stuff. I've been getting some reviews saying there's some OOC stuff, but could you be more specific so I can avoid it? I had some problems with the end of this chapter in general (manly the Earl and Lenalee) and I tried to make Ed a bit more mature since he's almost 19, but as you can see with all his yelling and stuff he's the same old Ed.

Like I said I don't know DGM as well as FMA (I did start the last season today though) but that's what all you wonderful readers are for right? *Cricket chirps* (No really I have like three in my basement right now) Anyway please review ^_^


	5. V Brother

_**V Brother**_

"You tried to bring someone back to life!"

Allen's eyes widened. Was that true? Had Ed created an Akuma just like he had? He looked over at Ed hoping he would deny it. At first he didn't reply, but the sudden look of guilt on his face and the way he lowered his head he guessed that it was true.

"There are lines that you don't cross" he said softly.

"I crossed one of those those lines even knowing the risks..."

Then he suddenly looked back up at the Earl with his golden eyes once again burning with anger.

"**BUT SO HAVE YOU!"**

In an instant he clapped his hands and sent two stone fists out of the ground up at him. There was a loud crashing noise as they collided causing a dust cloud to block their view, but when it was gone they all could see that it had missed, and the Earl wasn't in sight.

"Damn it" Ed muttered.

As he roughly grabbed his coat off the ground and dusted it off before putting it back on things were pretty silent, but he had expected something like this.

"Ed..."

"I didn't create an Akuma" he told them.

"I created something worse"

After that Ed became a bit distant around people in the order. He still went on assignments he was told to go on, but he avoided Allen and Lenalee as much as he could. He didn't like dealing with question he didn't want to answer. Most of the time he spent in his room slowly decoding Hoenheim's notes, but it was a slow process, and with everything that had been going on lately he didn't have the motivation to work on it.

One day he just couldn't focus for some reason and decided to get some fresh air. He was able to leave the order without anyone really noticing, and went into town. He didn't really go anywhere, he just wanted to get outside for a while. He really just walked around for a while and got lost in his thoughts.

He wasn't going to admit it, but he was homesick. He missed Al a lot, and wondered if he was looking for him. He wondered if he had been proclaimed dead or something. He hoped not, he knew Winry would be heart broken if she thought he was dead. Winry. Just thinking about her and picturing her face and beautiful smile that he loved made his heart ache. He missed her the most, and even though he never had told her, he did love her.

He sighed as he broke his train of thought on purpose to prevent himself from feeling more depressed. It was then he realized how dark it was getting and that he should head back.

"Brother?"

The moment he heard that voice he stopped walking and froze. It couldn't be, could it? He was afraid to turn around, afraid that he was just hearing things and/or he was going insane, afraid that he was dreaming, afraid that it wasn't Al at all. Still, something did convince him to slowly turn around to the voice, and there it was: That familiar metallic silver seven foot tall suit of armor. He blinked and rubbed his eyes a few times, but it was still standing there in front of him.

"Al..." he finally said taking slow steps towards him.

"That is really you isn't it?"

The last thing he wanted was for it to be a dream, but as he slowly reached out and touched the cold metal with his gloved flesh hand he knew it had to be real.

"**BROTHER!"**

He was caught of guard by his little brother's sudden bone crushing hug, but it _was_ Al after all.

"Ohbrotherit'ssolongI'vemissedyousomuch,somepeoplesaidyouweredead,butnowI'vefoundyouand-

"**I CAN'T BREATH!"**

"Oh...Sorry" he said as he gently put Ed down.

Ed coughed a bit and caught his breath again, then he looked back up at the suit of armor that contained Al's soul.

"But how did you get here? And why are you still in the armor?"

The last thing he wanted to know is that he had failed to get his body back in the first place.

"There was an earthquake in Central a little while ago, and then suddenly the gate opened up for a few moments so I transferred my soul into this armor and went through"

Ed nodded. It made sense, after all he had opened up the gate with Shou not to long ago, and he now knew that it had been a success. If only he had managed to jump through as well before it closed...

"Then...You _are_ back to normal now right?"

"Yes"

Ed breathed a sigh of relief. He knew Al was a horrible liar, so that he had he to be telling the truth. But when he looked back up at him he noticed the armor was starting to shake.

"Al?"

"I'm sorry brother, the transmutation doesn't last that long, I'm being pulled back now"

"Al!"

He didn't want him to go yet, it was to soon! His mind was trying to come up with a way that could extend his time here, but he couldn't think straight. Knowing he only had a few moments left with his brother he knew what he had to tell him.

"Al listen, I know how to get home now, so I'll be back soon ok?"

"Alright. I miss you brother, we all do"

That was the last thing he said before his eyes in the helmet winked out and the empty armor fell to the ground in pieces.

"Did something happen?"

Ed looked up from his food to see that Allen had decided to take the seat across from him.

"Why do you say that?" he asked when his mouth wasn't full.

"You just seem like you're in a good mood..."

He had noticed how Ed seemed to be after the incident with the Earl, and as much as a mystery the young alchemist was, he decided not bother him about what he had said earlier. It was true that he wanted to find out more about him, but he didn't want to ask him personal things.

"I saw my little brother yesterday in town" in said with a smile.

"That's great! Where is he now?"

"He had to go back home..."

There was something about the way he said "home" that made it sound like it was far away and out of his reach. He was about to ask something, but Ed had just finished his lunch and stood up to leave.

"Back to your room already?"

"I'm on the last notebook"

He wasn't really sure what that meant, but he just nodded and watched him walk off. The truth was his encounter with Al was just what he needed for a motivation boost on the notes, and ever since he worked on them every minute he could only taking breaks when he was hungry or tired. It didn't take long for him to finish him up what needed to be decoded. He knew he didn't really need to know what was in them since he knew how to get back to Amestris, but if Hoenheim gave them to him he knew there was something in them he wanted him to know.

When he was done he smiled proudly, then took the next few minutes to put it all together and look it over. What he found was not good news for him, and it was even more disturbing then the Philosopher's Stone.

"Ed? Are you in here?"

Allen had knocked twice, and since the door was unlocked he decided to poke his head in. Ed was lying on his bed with his ungloved right arm over his eyes.

"Ed?" he tried again thinking he might be sleeping

That time he seemed to hear him, and he stirred a little so he knew he wasn't asleep.

"You ok?" he asked.

"When I was fifteen I found out something about alchemy that disturbed me. Ever since then I wish I hadn't found out about it, and now...Now I've found out something worse"

Allen glanced over at the papers that were scattered about on his desk. Ed's messy handwriting were all over them and didn't seem to be in any particular fashion, and even if he was able to read them he wouldn't understand them anyway.

"You don't wanna know Allen, trust me" he said as he sat up.

It effected him too, heck it effected all the exorcists.

"Anyway did you wanna talk to me or something?" he asked changing the subject.

"Oh. Kamui wanted to see us again"

"Another assignment?"

"With Kanda..." he said with a frown.

"Yay." Ed said sarcastically.

"**I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!" **Ed yelled at Kanda a few hours later.

Allen and Lavi flinched, but Ed had been pretty pissed off for the past few minutes. Once again it was another innocence finding mission, but a few things had happened that pushed Ed over the edge. Having to deal with Kanda was one, then they had run into Lavi by chance and he had to deal with his comments about his height, but the real problems started when they actually found who had the innocence.

This world's Trisha had it, and she was compatible. Thing was her health was very fragile with out it for some reason, but Kanda still talked about taking it from her.

"It's the Order's policy" he said coldly.

"**SO JUST GOING TO TAKE FROM HER JUST LIKE THAT? WHAT IF SHE GETS SICK? WHAT IF SHE DIES?"**

Even if she wasn't his mother he didn't want that to happen.

"And if we don't take it the Akuma and Noah will find her. We either take it, let her be killed, or make her an exorcist" he said.

Ed clenched his fist until the metal started to creek. He really was just trying his best to resist punching him in the face.

"So this is how you _really_ do things is it?" he snapped.

"Ed-"

But he didn't let Allen finish.

"Well then if it is then I don't want to be a part of it!" he said angrily as he snatched up his coat and headed for the door.

"You're worse then the military!" was the last thing he said before slamming the door as loud as he could behind him.

"Just let him go" said Kanda unfazed by Ed's words.

"He may not be your friend but he is mine" said Allen as he headed out the door with Lavi not to far behind him.

"I can't believe them" Ed muttered as he walked down the street with his hands in his pockets kicking a pebble as he went.

He needed some time to cool off, but he meant every word he said back there. After he was done here he was going to grab his stuff that was still in his room at the Order, say his goodbyes, then go home. When he meant home, he meant Amestris. He was going to open the gate again and kiss Europe goodbye.

He shivered as a cold breeze blew by, and he pulled his coat around himself tighter.

_Why does this place have to be so damn cold?_

He wasn't used to the cold weather at all even though he had been in Europe for nearly three years. He hadn't gone that far north when he was in Amestris, and the East was hot and rainy if anything. Noticing it was getting pretty dark he saw that he had two options: Go back to the others and deal all that again, or find the train station and use his money to get away from the place.

"Edward Elric"

He froze and instantly reached for his knife.

_Oh no, not now!_

"I've been looking for you!"

He barely had enough time to cut his finger and spin around before Envy shoved him against a wall with a tight grip on his throat.

"I've been looking for you you little shrimp" he said as he tightened his grip starting to choke him.

He smiled knowing that Ed was going through pain right now. As he tried to pull his hand off of him he gripped tighter making him gag more. Finally Ed had had enough and kicked him in the stomach with his automail leg as hard as he could. Envy was forced to drop Ed causing him to fall to his knees and cough a few times before transmuting his automail blade. However Envy tackled him and pinned him to the ground before he could stand up.

Ed was caught by surprise from this, but quickly recovered and tried to stab him with his blade. Envy got off him and dodged at the last second, but he still got a cut across his chest. As he regenerated Ed quickly lept up and took a fighting stance.

_Damn it! I don't have his remains with me!_

But he knew if Envy tried to dodge his attack even though he could heal then he was probably running out of red stones.

_I guess I'll just have to keep attacking him then._

"Let's see how you fight yourself" Envy said as he shifted into a perfect copy of Ed with his automail blade out.

"Won't be a problem with me" he said before rushing at him.

The two began dancing around each other each trying their best to dodge they other's blows. It went on for a few minutes like that, then Envy decided that it just wasn't working and shifted into Al. Ed was used to Envy's attempted guilt trips, so it just made him pissed off.

"You damn bastard!" he said as he jabbed his automail blade up towards his shoulder hoping he could stab him.

Envy grinned, then easily dodged the blow and pushed Edward to the ground.

"Aw, the little shrimp is complaining!"

His gaze hardened as he pushed his knee roughly into his stomach.

"I made a mistake. I should have killed you before Alphonse would notice, then drag your body away and throw into the empty abyss."

"**GO TO HELL!"**

Ed went in for another stab, and Envy started to change again. His skin became pitch black, his organs were revealed, he changed to the form of a new born homunculus. He just laid there on the ground, smiling, while Ed took in the grotesque scene, because not only had he became this form, but this was the form of Ed if he were to become a homunculus. Ed's eyes widened with fear as he realized what he had morphed into. Memories of the night he and Al had tried the forbidden came flooding back to him and he began to tremble, it still haunted his nightmares to this day. He was now frozen with fear and couldn't move an inch.

Envy rose up, and slowly, but surely, began to move, a sickening crunch matching every twitch he made. He grinned, and began to slowly crawl towards Ed.

"Al...phonse..." He moaned, staring up at Ed with big eyes, reaching at him.

"Where could he have gone?" asked Allen.

He and Lavi were looking for him among the streets, but they couldn't find him. Plus it was nearly pitch black so for all they knew they could have passed him without knowing it.

"You don't think he could've left town without us do you?" Lavi asked.

Then they heard Ed scream and they instantly ran towards the noise. What they found was rather disturbing. Ed was on his knees trembling. His eyes were wide with fear, and his gaze didn't move from the ground. But what really disturbed them was the creature wrapped around him. It's form was human, but the only thing that could be seen to confirm that it was human was the blood stained blonde hair. Blood seemed to be dripping off of it as if it was injured, and all the internal organs and even it's ribs could be seen.

"Edward... Elric..." it said.

"They killed you, because when Alphonse died, you went insane. They locked you up, they tried to help you, but nothing worked"

"No" Ed whispered.

"It's not true, it's not true!"

He tried to cover his ears and block him out, but he could still hear him.

"Everyone stopped visiting and began to realize there was no hope for you. Even Winry forgot about you, but when you died, she mourned your loss...And then repeated your mistake..."

"It's not true" he kept muttering, trying to snap out of it.

"It's not true, and can't be true"

"You died Edward...This whole world is just a dream..."

Allen and Lavi watched the scene in terror not sure what to do, but when Allen saw Envy change his arm into a blade similar to Ed's and was about to stab him with it he couldn't take it anymore. He quickly activated his innocence, then ran towards him and slashed him with his arm right before the blade made contact with Ed. Envy was hit and knocked back, then shifted back into his original form.

"Damn you"

Allen was expecting a fight with him, but he just fled. It didn't matter to him much, not as much as Ed's current condition.

"Ed! Ed can you hear me?"

"It's not true" he kept muttering.

"Ed you have to snap out of it!"

"It can't be true, it just can't!"

_**Author's Notes**_

Yep, another 3000 words for you. Sorry for the wait, but I had some block on this. What Ed found out in Hoenheim's notes will be revealed later, and if anyone's confused about what Envy said he was just saying stuff to mess with him. The next chapter is probably only going to be about half this length, and I should have it up within a week. Also, I am now 1/3 through this story! ^_^ Review?


	6. VI Recovery and A Phone Call

_**VI Recovery and A Phone Call**_

"How is he?"

Allen and Lavi had taken Ed back to Bookman so he could help him, but he still seemed to be in shock. Right now he was sleeping peacefully, and Bookman had taken care of his minor physical injuries.

"His injuries weren't that severe. It's his mental state I'm worried about" said Bookman.

Allen and Lavi both nodded. The whole time they walked back he kept muttering the same thing over and over again. It didn't stop until he fell asleep.

"Whatever that guy was saying to him really seemed to shock him" said Lavi.

"Did either of you make any sense of it?" Bookman asked.

"Alphonse is his little brother, and he said he died and went insane, but Ed told me he ran into him two days ago"

Bookman nodded and looked back over to Ed.

"He'll be alright won't he?" Lavi asked.

"Only time will tell...I'm just interested in what exactly attacked him. You said it looked human, but it could change it's form?"

"Yes" said Allen.

"Do you think maybe it had something to do with the Noah family?" Lavi suggested.

"Maybe, but why would they attack him? He's not an exorcist" Allen pointed out.

"I guess you're right..."

Lavi sighed, and noticed that Bookman was being pretty quiet while checking on Ed.

"Something wrong gramps?" he asked hoping there wasn't anything else wrong with their friend.

"I'm just curious about these limbs of his" he said gently picking up his automail arm.

"They seemed to be connected to his nerves, and the scars around his stumps suggest that it was quite a painful process. I haven't seen anything like it"

"He does seem to have a lot of scars" Lavi noticed.

"There's one in particular that I can't quite figure out"

"What do you mean?"

Bookman pulled down the blanket gently careful not to disturb him, and pointed to the large scar on his chest where Envy had stabbed and killed him over two years ago.

"There's an identical one on his back as well"

"Are you saying he was stabbed with something right through his heart? But how did he survive such a thing?"

"That's exactly my point. This boy is a mystery"

Ed had woken up a few hours later. The room was empty since everyone had left him alone to rest, and he was now standing on the balcony thinking about what Envy had said to him. He felt the scar on his chest where Envy had stabbed him. He remembered that feeling when he died, that look of Horror and shock on Al and Rose's faces, and that smile Envy had right before he died.

_"You died Edward..."_

He shuddered at the memory. He had died, but he had come back...Right?

_"They killed you,"_

"_This whole world is just a dream..."_

What if he was right? What if all this was just some dream? He looked down at the street below. He was pretty high up. If he jumped and died would he wake up?

"Ed?"

The first thing Allen noticed when he walked in was that Ed wasn't in bed anymore. Then a nice soft breeze came in and he noticed that the doors to the balcony were open, and that Ed was starting to climb up on the railing.

"**WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"**

He startled Ed was he ran towards him and yanked him off, but he wasn't going to let him kill himself.

"**WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" **he yelled at him.

"I don't know what you've been through Ed, but you have to move forward!"

Those last few words brought him back to reality. He remembered saying something similar to Rose when she broke down, and he purposely burned down his house so that he wouldn't turn back, and now here he was being yelled at for his own stupidity. He couldn't help chuckling at the irony, and Allen seemed to calm down and raise an eyebrow at him thinking he lost it.

"Ed-"

"I'm fine Allen" he said honestly.

"I'm an idiot, but I'm fine now. Thanks for stopping me"

"What was that thing back there that attacked you?" Lavi asked when they were on the train back to the Order.

Ed sighed. He had a lot of explaining to do, and he knew he wasn't going to get around it either.

"That was Envy, a homunculus"

"Homunculus?"

Ed nodded.

"They're artificially created humans with alchemy. They have supernatural abilities, and they're extremely hard to kill"

"Alchemy can create such a thing?" Allen asked him.

"It's what happens when you try to revive the dead..." he said softly gripping his arm.

Things were silent as they took it in, then Allen spoke.

"Wait a minute,"

What the Earl said to him was still clear in his mind.

"Is that what you created? A homunculus, this Envy guy?"

"Envy wasn't the one I created, but yes. I tried to bring my mother back and ended up losing my limbs. I created a homunculus, but I killed her before she killed me"

"But then why is Envy after you?" asked Lavi.

"He's the homunculus of my half brother, he thinks I'm his replacement"

Things were very quiet the rest of the way. A while later Allen went into Ed's room, and found him packing his things.

"So you're really leaving then..."

Ed nodded and spoke without looking at him.

"Allen, you may not understand this, but I need to get home"

"You're right" he said.

"I don't really understand, and it seems like there's a lot more that you're hiding from us. We're your friends aren't we? Why do you keep hiding thing from us?"

Ed stopped packing and sighed.

"Even if I told you everything, even if I told you the truth, you wouldn't believe me"

With that he snapped his suitcase shut with everything he needed inside, then brushed past Allen without another word.

"What about Envy?"

That made him stop.

"What if he comes after you again?"

"That won't happen" he assured him.

After all he knew that he wouldn't be able to get back to Amestris on his own. He continued walking, and was half way down the hall when Lenalee stopped him.

"Ed, Kamui said you had a phone call"

_Phone call?_

Who the heck would be calling him?

"Did he say who it was?"

She shook her head. He sighed, and since he already said all of his goodbyes he decided to take it.

"Hello?"

"Brother!"

Ed gasped. He sounded afraid, and glad that he had gotten a hold of him, but it didn't make any sense. How did he get on the side of the gate again? He told him he was going to be home soon anyway, and while he was at it how the heck did he know where he was?

"Brother I don't have much time-

He heard voices in the background, then Al screamed and the phone on the other end seemed to drop.

"Keep him quiet, will you?" he heard.

It was a girl's voice, one that he didn't recognize. Then she picked up the phone.

"We have your brother Edward" she said.

"What have you done with him?" he demanded.

"Oh relax, he's fine. Come to the abandoned warehouse alone and we'll negotiate."

"Brother don't! It's a trap-

Then the line went dead.

_**Author's Notes**_

**DUN DUN DUNNNNN! **Not much else to say (sorry for the shortness and any OOCness)...Review please! ^_^


	7. VII Trap

_**VII Trap**_

Ed 's conscience told him it was a really bad idea as he walked towards the warehouse like they said, but whenever Al was in trouble he couldn't think straight. He didn't even notice he was being followed.

"Are you sure this a good idea Allen?" Lavi asked him.

"I've just got a feeling about this..."

"Good or bad?"

They watched Ed walk in the warehouse, and before Allen could answer his question his eye activated.

"Oh no..."

The doors to the warehouse opened with a loud creek that told anyone inside that he was here. It was poorly lit so he had to wait until his eyes adjusted before he scanned the room. He didn't see anyone, but for all he knew they could be waiting in the shadows to kill him or something. He slid the doors closed as he walked in, then heard Al's voice.

"Brother..."

He sounded weak and injured, and as he limped towards him he noticed he was bleeding.

"**AL!"**

He caught his little brother as he fell, and noticed it was a fatal wound in his chest.

_Oh god Al what did they do to you?_

"Al stay with me, Al!"

He was slipping away fast.

_No! I can't lose him, not again!_

He quickly pulled his knife out of his pocket and cut his finger, then took out the Philosopher's Stone. He had mixed feelings about using it, but if it was to save Al he'd do anything.

"Just hang on Al, you're gonna be ok"

A loud clap rang out in the room, and there was a bright red glow as he started the transmutation, but he could tell right away that something was wrong. The wound wasn't healing, but some of the Philosopher's Stone was still being used.

"Still just a puppet"

But when he realized that it wasn't even Al it was already to late. Envy had changed his arm into a blade and plunged it through Ed's chest, and since he had already started to transmute him the gate had appeared.

"Well done"

The Millennium Earl came into view, and it all made sense then. Envy and Noah had worked together to lure him here and open the gate, and when he saw the Earl sending through his Akuma to the other side he knew why: No one would be able to destroy them. Millions would die, and all the Akuma would become stronger.

"**NO!"**

It would all be his fault. He had to stop them, but he was bleeding out fast.

_No! I can't die here, not again! Al, Winry, everyone's waiting for me!_

It took all of his strength just to clap his hands again and heal the wound with the stone.

"**ED!"**

Once Allen's eye had detected all of the Akuma he and Lavi had run in to help Ed, but they stopped when they saw the gate.

"What is that thing?"

"I don't know, but I've seen it once before"

"Allen, Lavi! Cover me!"

They didn't really understand what was going on, but they both nodded and activated their innocence as Ed ran towards the gate. He could go through and close it from the other side, then deal with the Akuma.

"I won't let you Edward"

Road stood in his way, and he recognized it as her voice on the phone.

"If you think I'm not gonna hurt you because you're a girl then you're wrong" he said as he transmuted his automail blade.

He charged at her, but she casually dodged, then grabbed his knife from the ground and quickly shoved it into his port. He let out a scream as it suddenly hit the nerves, and quickly pulled it out. However he felt her hit him on the head with something pretty hard, and everything got blurry before going completely black.

_**Author's Notes**_

Since both chapters here are pretty short, I decided to give them to you both at once. I had some block on this one, but I tried my best. The next chapter will better, and nice and long too.


	8. VIII Amestris

_**VIII Amestris**_

"That's all of them!" Allen shouted.

Lavi sighed from relieve and leaned onto his hammer for support trying his best not to let Ed fall off his back.

"More importantly, where are we?"

After Ed had been knocked unconscious Allen saw that the gate was trying to pull him inside. They had ran over to try and stop it, but they had gotten pulled in too. The had arrived in the underground city underneath Central, but of course they didn't know that. Since the gate had closed and they had both dealt with all the Akuma that the Earl sent through they decided to look around. Then they heard voices.

"All that noise seems like it came down here" said one.

"You sure?" said the other.

"Scared Breda?"

"Of course not Havoc!"

"Then come on!"

"Think they can help us?" Allen asked.

"Well it doesn't look like anyone else is down here"

Then Ed groaned and stirred a bit.

"Ow..."

"Who's there?"

Havoc and Breda both drew their guns at the noise and spun around to see Allen and Lavi.

"Um, hi..." Allen said not sure what else to say.

Ed was more awake now, and he blinked when he saw Havoc and Breda.

"Havoc? Breda?"

Once they saw Ed was with them both their jaws dropped causing Havoc's cigarette to fall to the floor.

"Chief?"

_I guess I'm back then._

"Chief?" said Allen and Lavi looking confused.

"We all thought you were dead" said Breda.

Ed frowned.

"Do you guys really think I'd die that easily?" he said as Lavi put him down.

"You got a point there..." said Havoc.

"Um, Ed where are we?"

"Amestris"

"Amestris?"

He never heard of that place before.

"I'll explain everything later ok?"

"General Mustang will want to see you Ed" said Breda.

Ed groaned and hung his head. He knew he would have to deal with him at some point, but he wanted to avoid it until later.

"Does it have to be now?"

They both nodded and he groaned again.

"Fine, let's just get it over with"

"Um, Ed..."

He frowned as he looked back at Allen and Lavi. How was he going to explain everything to them? He had been purposely avoiding it, and now he didn't really have a choice. He sighed and turned back to Havoc and Breda.

"You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up. Oh, and don't tell him I'm back yet, I wanna see the look on his face"

Havoc chuckled.

"Sure thing chief"

Then they left and Ed turned back to the two exorcists.

"Can you take off your uniforms? They'll stand out to much here"

"Yeah, but where is 'here'?" Lavi asked.

Ed sighed and stuck his hands in his pockets.

"You're in another world"

He let them take it in for a moment, then spoke again.

"That thing you saw back there in the warehouse is called the Gate; it's a link between your world and this one."

"So this is where you're from then?" Lavi asked.

"Yes"

"Why didn't you tell us?" Allen demanded.

"Would you have believed me?"

"Wow" Lavi said when they got to the surface and outside.

"This place is amazing"

They had taken off their coats like Ed has asked them to, and were now carrying them under their arms and walking towards Central military headquarters.

"It's 1918 here" Ed told them.

"That much of a time difference?" Allen asked.

"Yep"

"What's with all the people in the blue uniforms? Those two we saw down there had 'em on too"

"They're all with the military. Blue are the regular soldiers, black are the MP's, and those with silver pocket watches are called State Alchemists who work for the military" he explained.

He decided to leave out the "Dog" part, especially since he was one of them.

"Then if you knew those two back there, then you're a soldier?"

Ed nodded.

"I've been a State Alchemist since I was twelve, my watch broke though..."

Then a large shadow cast over them and Ed knew it to be one of two things: Either a big cloud had gone over the sun for a moment, or someone REALLY tall was behind him...

"**ED-WARD ELRIC YOU LOOK WELL!" **Armstrong boomed as he suddenly ripped his shirt off and pulled Ed into a bone crushing hug while crying a river of tears and pink sparkles danced around his head.

"Can't, breath, major" Ed choked out as Allen and Lavi sweatdropped at the scene.

"Oh I'm terribly sorry" he apologized as he gently set Ed down and put his shirt back on.

Then he noticed Allen and Lavi so he decided to introduce them.

"This is Allen and Lavi, they're friends of mine"

"Pleased to meet you. I'm Lt. Colonel* Alex Louis Armstrong" he said as more pink sparkles appeared.

"So you got promoted huh"

"Yes. I assume you're on your way to see Mustang?"

"Yeah..."

"**THEN ALLOW ME TO ESCORT YOU THERE!" **he boomed and once again ripped his shirt off and sparkled.

"Um, no thanks" Ed said quickly.

The last thing he wanted was to listen to him go on and on about his family and how everything was passed down from the generations...He got enough of that when he was guarding him back when Scar was around and still killing State Alchemists.

"And what about your pocket watch? You don't have it anymore so I doubt you'll get in so easily..."

"Right..."

He actually hadn't thought of that...So the three of them were forced to listen to Armstrong blabbing about his family the rest of the way, then they got inside without any problems and Armstrong left to go do his work (they were all glad too). When they reached Mustang's office Ed couldn't help snickering and smirked mischievously.

_Oh man this is gonna be good..._

He barged in without warning causing everyone inside to flinch and look up from their paperwork, then he sat down on the couch and watched as everyone but Havoc and Breda looked absolutely shocked.

"So what'd I miss?" he asked as if he hadn't been gone at all.

He heard Havoc and Breda snickering quietly, and he smirked at the look on Mustang's face.

"What? Cat got your tongue?"

Mustang coughed awkwardly as he regained his composure, then smirked as he spoke.

"Well what do you know, I can actually see you now. I guess you're a jumbo shrimp"

Ed frowned and Breda and Havoc suddenly took out a mini blackboard to keep score.

"Mustang-1, Ed-0"

"Oh really now?" Ed began.

"With that eye patch of yours and you getting old I'm surprised you can see anything"

"Mustang-1, Ed-1"

Allen and Lavi sweatdropped at the scene and weren't really sure what to do.

"You think we should do something?" Lavi asked him.

"It looks like it's pretty normal for them"

Lavi nodded.

"I'm just surprised that this Mustang guy looks a lot like Yu" he pointed out.

"Now that you mention it I think you're right"

"Maybe we should cut off his hair when we get back and see" he joked.

"Mustang-2, Ed-5"

Ed smirked, and Mustang simply glared at him.

"Fine, but I want a full report" Mustang told him as he tossed a new watch at him.

"Don't break this one"

"Yeah yeah"

Ed clipped the watch to his belt and motioned to Allen and Lavi that it was ok to leave now.

"So where to now?" Allen asked him.

"Resembool, my home town"

"Hey Ed" Lavi asked him when they were on the train.

"Yeah?"

"Well be able to get back to our world won't we?"

Ed frowned and bit his lip.

"Don't tell us we're stuck here!" Allen said a bit alarmed.

"The gate's not easy to open, and getting through isn't always safe, but I'll be able to get you back to England safely"

They both sighed from relief and sank back into their chairs. Ed wasn't lying either. He had a little more than half the Stone left, and it was more than enough to get them home. He just wished they hadn't come through in the first place...

"So this is where you grew up?" Lavi asked as they got off the train.

"Yep"

"It's nice and quiet around here" said Allen as they walked up the hill.

"Oh, and Lavi"

"Yeah?"

They were only a few yards away from the Rockbell house, and Ed suddenly stopped walking and glared at Lavi.

"She's mine" he said sternly.

"Um, ok..."

_He can be scary sometimes..._

Ed took a deep breath as he walked up the steps, then knocked on the door. He heard Den barking, then Winry speaking.

"Den don't bark so loud! I'm coming!"

He stiffened a bit and got nervous. He actually felt pretty stupid. Here he was, the famous Edward Elric who had fought Homunculi and Akuma, but he was nervous about talking to a girl he knew practically his whole life. Then she opened the door and gasped.

"E-Edward"

"I'm home Winry"

Then she gave him a hug that almost knocked him off the porch and caused him to turn bright red.

"Edward" she said with a tear in her eye.

"You had me so worried. I though you wouldn't come back for me and now that your here I don't ever want to let you go."

"Winry..."

Out of the corner of his eye he saw that Lavi's eye had turned into an anime heart, but once he shot a glare at him he remembered what he said and returned to normal. Ed smirked at this, and nervously hugged Winry back. However as soon as he did his right arm suddenly went limp and he couldn't move it at all.

_Oh...Why did it have to break now?_

He laughed nervously and stepped back a little.

"**ED-WARD!" **she said glaring daggers at him and reaching for a wrench.

"Now Winry, let's just calm down here..." he said taking two more steps back.

What he didn't know was that when Road shoved his knife into his port it severed a lot of the main wires holding all together, and in that moment the last one finally snapped causing his arm to actually fall off.

___Oh god that's not supposed to happen_

He laughed nervously as he looked at her, and prepared himself for wrenches and yelling. Her jaw dropped to an unhealthy degree as it fell to the ground and her eyebrow twitched, then she threw a wrench at him with all her might landing a blow right in his face and knocking him to the ground.

"I can't believe you! The first thing you do when you come home is break your automail!"

Ed groaned as he sat up and rubbed his head, and flinched at her yelling.

"But it wasn't my-

"I don't wanna hear it! Automail doesn't just fall off it's own Edward, you've been reckless again haven't you?"

"Maybe just a little..."

She sighed and shook her head at him.

"Just come inside, and bring your friends too I guess"

"Is she always like this?" Allen whispered to him as they walked inside.

"Only when she's really mad at me" he whispered back.

"So who are your friends?" she asked not overhearing what they had said.

"This is Allen and Lavi. They're sort of stuck with me for a little while..."

She nodded. She would ask more about it later.

"Come over here and let me see if this new arm fits"

Ed blinked. She had already made a new model for him? Then again it was Winry was talking about here, and he had learned not to underestimate her skills. He nodded as he hug his coat up on the rack, then stripped down to his black muscle shirt and sat down on the couch.

"How does this stuff work anyway?" Lavi asked pointing to Ed's now broken arm on the table.

Winry of course began ranting on and on about automail after that, and Ed drowned it all out and didn't snap out of it until she suddenly connected the nerves. He flinched and whimpered at the sudden pain, but he was pretty used to it by now.

"Warn me next time!"

"I did you just weren't listening you idiot!"

Ed sighed to tired to argue anymore and leaned back in the couch.

"Where's Al anyway?"

Of course it was during that moment that he was walking down the stairs.

"Brother?"

Ed gasped and he slowly turned his head to see Al standing there.

"Al..."

He had grown quite a lot and was a little taller than him. He had also grown out his hair and wore it in a pony tail, and he had seen his old red coat on the rack so he guessed he had been borrowing it.

"**BROTHER!"**

As expected he was suddenly glomped, and he sure that he was also crying a little.

"I missed you so much!"

"Well I'm back now, so there's nothing to worry about"

"Morning Winry" he said as he walked down the stairs.

"Oh hi Allen"

His stomach growled loudly as he smelled her cooking breakfast, then he sat down next to Lavi.

"Hey Winry, if you don't mind me asking, are you Ed's girlfriend or something?" Lavi asked her.

"What?" she said as she turned and faced him bright red.

"N-No we're just good friends"

"Really?"

They both saw that it was pretty obvious that Ed liked her, and by observing them the day before they fought like an old married couple.

"He stares at you"

Another thing they had both noticed.

"He stares at me?"

They both nodded, then they heard Ed yawn as he came down stairs.

"Morning" he muttered still half asleep.

Winry handed him a cup of coffee knowing that if he didn't have some he'd be like a zombie all morning. He muttered a thank you, then gulped it down before sitting at the table next to Allen and Lavi.

"Where's Al anyway? He wasn't in his room"

"He said he went for a walk" she said as she finished cooking breakfast and sat down with their plates.

Ed and Allen both inhaled theirs like it was going to run away from them, and after seconds Winry took all their dishes into the kitchen then said she had to do some errands in town so she left.

"Why are you guys looking at me like that?" Ed asked them after she left.

"No reason..." they both said quickly.

Then a few moments later Al burst in through the front door looking pale and frightened and quickly shut and locked it behind him.

"Al what is it? What's wrong?" Ed asked quickly going into protective older brother mode.

"T-Teacher's coming"

Once he heard those two words he froze and all the color from his face quickly drained.

"T-Teacher's coming?"

Al nodded and he began to tremble. Then there was a knock at the door and he whimpered and quickly got behind his older brother.

"You have to protect me" he said as he continued to tremble.

"Sorry Al," he started.

"It's every man for himself!"

With that he bolted for the nearest window, but as soon as he opened it he got a foot in his face and was knocked back.

"You're still to predictable Edward" Izumi said as she climbed through the window.

"H-Hello t-teacher" Ed said as he trembled.

She glared down at him causing him to whimper, then she turned to Al.

"Well don't just stand there! Let Sig inside!"

"Yes ma'am" he said quickly and did as he was told.

"And you" she said turning back to Ed.

"I need to talk to you" she said as she grabbed Ed by his shirt collar and dragged him down the hall into another room.

They heard the door slam shut, then the sound of Ed whimpering as he was thrown against the wall.

"**HOW DARE YOU STAY IN THE MILITARY!"**

"Uh, is he gonna be ok in there?" Lavi asked.

"He might have a few bruises later but he'll be fine" Al assured him.

Ed groaned as he stood up, and noticed she seemed to be done. She started coughing pretty bad, so he ran over to see if he could help.

"Teacher-

"I'm fine Ed"

He sighed softly and lowered his head. Al had told him that he had gone to train with her again about a year ago, and that she seemed to be getting worse.

"Teacher...I have a question"

"What is it Ed?"

"You always told us that if we could fix something without alchemy then we should do so..."

He took a deep breath, and just got to the point.

"Do you know where the energy alchemy comes from?" he asked.

"Do you know that we're using the souls from the other side?"

She nodded.

"I saw that information in the gate when I tried the forbidden"

What neither of them were aware of was that Allen had accidentally overheard them as he walked down the hall. He was quite shocked and disturbed about this, but he didn't know half of it.

"I...I found out something else" he said.

Ed reached into his pocket and pulled out two neatly folded pieces of paper and handed them to her.

"These are two decoded pages of my father's journal" he told her.

She scanned them over, and as she read on her eyes widened with shock.

"This is-Are you sure this is true?"

"I really hope it's not, but I'm going to ask _him_ later"

"So, are you guys ready to head home?" he asked Allen and Lavi after Izumi and Sig had left.

"Yep"

Ed noticed that Allen looked like something was bothering him, but he didn't ask him what it was. He led them both into the basement, where he had already drawn and double checked the circle on the floor.

"Alright, stand in the middle then" he told them as he took out the stone and clapped his hands.

"No blood?" asked Lavi.

"Don't have to on this side"

He placed his hands on the circle, and it glowed a bright red before the gate appeared in front of them and opened.

"Alright, go on through. It's safe, I promise"

Lavi nodded, then jumped through followed by Allen. The gate closed with a loud creaking noise, but it didn't disappear just yet. Ed picked up the stone, and noticed there was still a lot left of it.

"Something you want alchemist?" asked the Truth.

"I have a question..."

_**Author's Notes**_

I bet you guys thought I was gonna tell you what Ed found out, but not yet. Anyway this chapter was really only for some humorous parts, but if you squint (and you'll realize this later) there is some important plot stuff in here. Now I know some of you are like but what's next? Well trust me, I've got some pretty good stuff coming. Now I've got family coming in on Sunday, and I'll be pretty busy and out of town for the next week or two, but I'll try my best to update. Clicking the button below does help though.

I

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	9. IX War

_**IX War**_

"General, is this what Ishbal was like?"

"No FullMetal. This is worse."

Edward and Mustang looked down on the city of London with complete horror. Ed had been in the city a few times, and while he knew some of it was in pretty bad shape, he knew it didn't deserve this, England didn't deserve this war! He wanted to put an end to the war that only been going on for a few months, he wanted to take down the higher ups that suddenly declared war on country that wasn't even in their own world, but he couldn't, because he knew it had all been his fault.

Allen ran through the streets of London looking for his comrades. He, like everyone else, was shocked when Amestris had suddenly invaded them and declared war six months ago, but was shocked him more was when the army had found the location their headquarters. Many people had been killed that day, and only a handful had managed to escape safely through the Ark.

For five months they were able to stay together while running away from the Amestrian army, but when London had started to get attacked they all had gotten separated. Now he was running blindly through the alley ways trying to find them all. He could hear the sounds of the explosions and gunfire all around him, but what stood out most to him were all the screams of the wounded and dying.

_Why is all this happening?_

It didn't make sense to him. Why would Amestris suddenly invade them? How did they even get here was another thing, but what he had kept trying to figure out was how they found the Order's location. Would someone really rat them out? It had happened before, but he didn't want to believe it had happened again.

He was about to turn another corner when suddenly some soldiers did. Enemy soldiers.

_Uh, oh._

He immediately skidded to a stop and managed to activate his innocence and block most of their gunfire (the rest of it missed entirely). He waited until they seemed to be out of bullets, then he turned around and made a run for it. He lost them after making a few turns, the leaned against a wall to catch his breath.

_That was to close. _

Then he heard footsteps approaching and he froze. Just when they were about to turn the corner they stopped, and he guessed who ever it was had noticed him. He didn't want to hurt anyone, but he was at a dead end, so he was either going to have to strike first or be attacked. He gulped nervously, then spun around to face his attacker just as he did the same, and Allen Walker and Edward Elric came face to face once again.

They both froze once they saw each other, and while he had his claws near Ed's throat his automail blade was pointed at his. Neither of them knew what to say, they just stared at each other for a moment and took in their differences. Ed had grown another inch, putting him and Allen on the same height, but other than that he looked the same. Allen's left arm however had changed into what was known as his Crown Clown form.

"What happened to your hair?" was Ed's first comment breaking the silence.

He blinked. Out of all the first thing that he could've said he didn't expect that, but his hair was different, it was nearly twice as long as Ed's now, and he wore it in a pony tail too.

"It's kind of a long story..."

"Copy cat" Ed muttered as he lowered his blade.

"I didn't mean to!"

"**ALLEN!"**

Kanda and Lenalee had found them. They had spotted Ed too, and once Kanda had seen he was in an Amestrian military uniform he drew his katana (Mugen).

"Wait! He's our friend Kanda, and you know that!"

Allen was blocking his path to get to Ed, and while Ed didn't make a move against him he did get into a defensive fighting stance.

"Take a look around bean sprout. We're in the middle of a war here, and right now he's our enemy" said Kanda.

"But he's not going to attack us!" Allen defended.

"How do you know that? How do you know that he's not the one who ratted us out in the first place!"

"**HE WOULDN'T DO THAT!"**

He looked back at him for assurance, but the look of guilt on his face betrayed him.

"Ed..."

"I'm afraid he's right Allen..."

_Six months ago..._

"_Edward, the Fuhrer wants to see you" Riza told him._

"_Fuhrer Hakuro?"_

_After Mustang had defeated Bradley General Grunnman took over the position of Fuhrer, but old age had taken his life recently, and General Hakuro was the next candidate so he got the position. Originally he was the one who allowed him to take the State Alchemist exam after his work he did on the train all those years ago, but when he was fugitive from the military right before he disappeared he grew suspicious of the brothers, and his suspicions continued after he suddenly reappeared. He had a bad feeling about this one, and he didn't like it. _

_This can't be good. He thought._

"_I'll just wait out here brother" Al said when they reached his office._

_Ed nodded, then knocked._

"_Enter"_

_He closed the door behind him after he walked in, then saluted properly._

"_You wanted to see me sir?"_

_He didn't like it, but he knew Hakuro had a temper so he had follow all the boring protocol that he hated. _

"_Ah, Major Elric. I've found evidence that you and your brother broke the greatest taboo of alchemy"_

_Ed's eyes widened. He was in some serious trouble. _

"_I'm sure you both are well aware of the law"_

"_Yes sir..."_

_So this was it then. What could he do? His secret was blown, and he knew if Mustang or anyone else who knew tried to help him out then they'd get punished too._

"_However, I am willing to overlook this..."_

_He frowned. That bad feeling was back, and it was now worse._

"_Tell me, what do you know about the gate?"_

"_**NO! I WON'T DO IT!"**_

_Al flinched when he heard his brother sudden yell. He sounded furious, but what could've made him like that? Sure it was Ed he was talking about, but he didn't yell at anyone like that. Curious, and somewhat worried he opened the door quietly just a crack and peaked in. Ed looked absolutely furious, but before he could see more someone grabbed him from behind. Startled, he let out a short scream and began to struggle, but it was no use._

"_**BROTHER!"**_

_The door was now flung open (on accident) and Ed could clearly see that two soldiers had a hold of his brother and were putting him in handcuffs._

"_**AL!"**_

_He took one step towards him, but then Al got a gun pointed right at his head. He froze as he got the message, and took a step back. _

"_If you do as I say then he won't be harmed, but if you don't..."_

_Ed flinched. They would kill Al, and who knows what else. He could see the fear on his brother's face, and he knew his own was probably similar._

"_Alright..." he whispered giving in._

_He saw Hakuro smile, and he clenched his fist to hold back his anger._

"_That's a good dog" he said._

"_Take him away" he told the soldiers._

"_**BROTHER!"**_

"_**AL!"**_

_And that was the last time he saw of his little brother, as he was taken away to Central Prison by two soldiers. _

"_Now tell me about the other side of the gate..."_

"Ed..."

"I'm sorry..."

He had no idea that Amestris was going to declare war on England and attack them, but if he did he would've tried to stop them.

"Why Ed?" Allen asked him still not believing it.

"They took Al away from me, they took my little brother away from me. I didn't have a choice"

He still hadn't seen Al since then, but Hakuro said that as long as he behaved and followed orders he would be fine, but they kept him in prison so that if Ed made one wrong move they could kill him immediately.

"**COLONEL! COLONEL ELRIC!"**

Another Amestrian soldier came towards them, and once he saw the black coats he knew they were exorcists and he aimed his gun at them.

"**STAND DOWN LIEUTENANT!" **Ed ordered.

"But-

"**THAT'S AN ORDER!"**

"Y-Yes sir"

He didn't really ordering people around or scaring the poor kid, but he was firm when he needed to be.

"General Mustang's been sent in" he told him.

"Damn"

Everyone in the Amestrian military knew what that meant: Lots of big explosions. They all either had to get off the battlefield or get inside somewhere if they didn't want to be burned to death.

"Get somewhere safe!" he told them before he took off running.

"**ED WAIT!" **Allen shouted after him.

But he ignored him and kept going. He thought he heard footsteps behind him, and when he looked he found out that Allen was following him.

"Allen you idiot!"

He knew there wasn't enough time to get out of the area, so he had to do what he could. He quickly clapped his hands together, then made a small underground tunnel that would keep them safe from the explosions.

"If you don't wanna get blown up then get in"

He crawled in first, and saw that Allen had followed.

"Are Kanda and Lenalee safe?"

"They ran for cover like you said"

"Then we can only hope then..."

It wasn't long before they heard the sound of massive explosions and screams from above.

"What's going on out there?"

"Mustang and his fire alchemy"

Allen lowered his head. How many people were going to die in the war? It was bad enough with the Earl and his Akuma armies, but this was worse.

"Ed...Why did your country start this war with us?"

"...Do you really wanna know?"

"Yes"

Ed sighed, and muttered something that sounded like an apology before hitting him on back of the head and knocking him out.

_**Author's Notes**_

And the main plot is revealed!

Ed: Well it's about time...

*Hits him on the head with a notebook * Anyway, _AuthorandCo _did something similar with her FMAxDGM crossover, but she said I could do this so thanks ^_^ In other news, I finally finished the DGM anime!

Allen: Finally! It took you five months!

Ed:Ha ha she finished my series in three weeks!

*Rolls eyes * So, in this point in DGM it's past the anime (Allen's long hair was your hint there) but I'm still not exactly sure what exact point. If you're confused about anything I'll assure you I'm going to explain everything that's important (like Ed's recent conversation with the gate) so please bear me, and continue to read and review.

Allen: Hey wait a minute! Ed I thought you said you were gonna be taller than me 

Ed: I am *Points to hair antenna *

Allen: That doesn't count!

Ed: The hair's apart of me isn't it? It counts!


	10. X The Truth

_**X The Truth**_

When Allen woke up he was pretty confused. Part of it was why Ed knocked him out in the first place, and part of it was that he had no idea where he was. He could tell that it was morning now since the sun was practically shining in his face, and the house he was in also looked pretty familiar. He saw that his uniform was hanging over a chair, and when he looked out the window he saw that he was somewhere in the country, but where exactly was he?

Hearing some voices he walked down the hall, but stopped when he caught a glimpse of Ed and Winry snogging in the kitchen. Not wanting to disturb them he quietly went back to the guest room before they noticed him. It reminding him of a bad experience when he was still training under Cross. He had accidentally walked in on him and one of his girlfriends, and he had gotten scarred for life. He shivered at that memory, but was glad he now knew where he was.

_But why did Ed bring me to Resembool again?_

It still didn't make sense. So much was going on now. Crosses' disappearance (again), finding out that he was the 14th, and now this war with Amestris.

"Oh, you're up"

He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't hear Ed come in.

"Yeah"

What was he supposed to say? There were many things he wanted to ask him, but he didn't really know where to start.

"We need to do something about your hair"

Allen blinked. What was wrong with his hair?

"My...Hair?"

"Not many people have white hair, it'll stands out to much here"

He breathed a short sigh of relief. He thought he was gonna cut it off or something. After that little incident with the science department resulting in his hair temporarily growing long he realized he actually kind of liked having long hair, so he grew it out.

"So what are we gonna do about it?"

"Alchemy"

Ed had gotten a large bowl and filled it with water, then put it down and clapped his hands together.

"Let me see your hair for a sec"

Allen nodded, and Ed gently grabbed the end of his ponytail and dipped it into the water. At first nothing happened, but then Ed stuck his hand into the water and used alchemy to dye Allen's hair his natural dark brown.

"It's only temporary, you can wash it out later"

Allen nodded, and looked at his reflection in a mirror ignoring what looked like a shadowy figure standing behind him. He had gotten used to having white hair it was weird seeing it brown again.

"So, uh...You and Winry?"

Just mentioning that made Ed turn bright red.

"O-Oh you saw that?"

"Yeah..."

The two had actually been dating for a while, after they confessed their feelings of course.

_It happened the same day Ed had sent Allen and Lavi home. Pinako was out doing errands, and Al wasn't around either leaving the two teens completely alone. It was really quiet and awkward, and even though they had known each other for years they had never been completely alone. Ed was getting tired of the silence, so he decided to say something._

_"Winry..." he began softly. _

_"I-I really have missed you...You know that, right?" _

_Winry flinched, but nodded. _

_"Yeah... Yeah, me too. Sorry if I seem crabby and all, I just.. I don't know." _

_She sighed, rubbing her temples. The mechanic took off her headband and let it drop to the floor, letting her hair drift in front of her eyes and down her back. _

_"Grandma said to tell you to drink more milk when I see you next," She remarked, but her usual gusto just was out of it today. _

_He rolled his eyes at the milk comment. _

_"Yeah well tell her it's still not gonna happen and that I've grown a lot without it."_

_"Allen said you stare at me." She complained, shooting a quick glance at Edward before facing the door again._

_He turned bright red when she mentioned that._

_"Um, well I uh-"_

_Was it really that obvious? He did sometimes, but not in a perverted way or anything. Although he did have some trouble keeping his eyes straight whenever she was in her work clothes, but he blamed his hormones for that. He just wasn't sure what to say to her now. _

_"Maybe just a little..." he finally admitted looking at the floor. _

_"But hey I know you always stare at me when I'm shirtless" _

_"Am I looking at you right now!" Winry snapped, and then she realized she was letting him see her face, which was painted a coat of blush. _

_She sighed and looked down at the floor. _

_"You really are an idiot sometimes..." She growled, sitting in an awkward way. _

_She started to ramble softly to him, more for her own venting. _

_"Do you ever have any idea how much you worry the hell out of me? I wish that sometimes you'd just..." She wouldn't finish that statement. _

_He sighed as he sat down next to her, but kept some personal space between them. _

_"I know Winry, I know...That's why I'm being more careful these days, I'm not as reckless as I used to be ya'know"_

_It was the truth. Ever since that incident with Envy two years ago he had been more careful. It was like a wake up call to him. _

_"Besides Winry, you and I both know I'm to suborn to die young" he joked. _

_She nodded, and rested her head on his shoulder, deciding that things needed change. _

_"I just wish you'd stop fighting altogether. Al already got his body back, and.. I'm stupid." _

_She sighed, and blush started to fade a little. The mechanic let out a huff of frustration and her hand collided with the back of Ed's head. _

_"Your still a dimwit, though." _

_"Oh gee thanks" he said sarcastically._

_He sighed again and rested his head against the wall. _

_"I know how you feel Winry, and I don't really care about getting my limbs back anymore, but when I think of that journey we had I think about all the people we helped. Plus there might still be some homunculi out there that we don't know about, or people that are doing bad things with alchemy that need to be stopped. That's why I chose to remain a state alchemist" _

_Winry shook her head and got up abruptly, anger sizzling off of her in waves. _

_"You really ____are__ a moron. There are other people other than complete strangers that need you around, __sometimes." She growled, leaving the room. _

_What Edward didn't see, was that she was crying. He was always so sad, that it made her so angry that he could care so much for others and not even realize that Winry was always waiting for him to come back home, to be there, but he just never came. _

_"Winry wait!" _

_He had caught a brief glimpse of her face as she had left, and he hated himself for making her cry again. He quickly caught up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. _

_"I'm sorry Winry, I really am. Winry...I never stopped thinking about you on our journey, and when I was in Germany I wanted to come home so I could see you again."_

_Then he took a deep breath and pulled her into a hug._

_"I love you Winry, I always have, and I always will." _

_She was startled into silence as she was hugged by Edward, Ed the short, Ed the annoying, Ed the friend... There were so many things running through her head right now that she just cried into his shoulder, putting her arms around his neck and hugging him back._

_"You idiot..." She still mumbled, but they both just stood there _

_Ed softly rubbed her back as a way of trying to comfort her. He really didn't know what else to say right now, it had taken some guts just to get that all out. _

_"It's ok" he said softly to her trying to comfort her some more. _

"You told her I stared at her?"

"Uh..."

Ed sighed and shook his head as he dumped the water from the bowl down the sink. Allen gulped nervously, and decided it was time to ask him.

"Ed-

"I know, but I'm going to ask you again: Are you sure you want to know?"

Ed knew it was going to be a rude awakening for him.

"Yes"

"...Alright"

He tossed Allen his old brown trench coat knowing it was cold outside, then slipped on his red one.

"But how did you get out of the battlefield and get me here?"

"_Sorry Allen" he apologized after knocking him out. _

_After the explosions finally stopped he gently dragged Allen out of the tunnel before picking him up. He was a bit heavier than he thought he would be, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. Mustang had really done some damage to the city, but he tried not to look at it. He knew from experience that war brought some nasty sights that were better left unseen. _

_When he got near the Amestrian military camp he hid Allen in the bushes so no one would see him, then took out his pocket knife and transmuted it into a screw driver. He slipped off his military jacket, then undid a few vital screws in his arm. He placed them in his pocket, then his arm went limp. He knew Winry would kill him if she knew he purposely broke his arm, but he would put the screws back in later. She wouldn't never know, and it wouldn't hurt her either._

"_Uh, sir?" he said when he found one of the higher generals._

"_Yes FullMetal?"_

"_I have a bit of a problem..." he said as he pointed to his automail._

_The General frowned and examined his arm._

"_You can't move it at all?"_

"_No sir. I can't fight like this either, I need to go back to Resembool for repairs."_

"_Alright then. You have three days, then you're back on the field."_

"_Thank you sir"_

"Then I just pulled you through the gate when no one was looking"

"So you permanently opened it?"

That explained how all the soldiers were able to get through.

"That right there's been a pain in the ass"

Since he was the only alchemist that knew so much about it Hakuro made him open the gate on both sides, which wasn't easy. Opening it one side was, but then he had to jump through and drew the circle to keep it open before it closed. Plus the Truth wasn't being really cooperative, but apparently he couldn't take stuff for no reason, and Ed guessed it was only Human Transmutation or a rebound.

"Come on, I'll explain everything else on the way"

"Where are we going?"

"Central. We're gonna pay a visit to _him_"

Allen raised an eyebrow.

_Him?_

He had heard Ed say the same thing when he was talking to Izumi, but he had no idea what he meant by it. He shrugged and figured he would find out anyway. They both said goodbye to Winry, then headed towards the train station. Allen really liked this place, it was calm and quiet, and most of all peaceful. He walked slowly behind Ed taking everything in again as he went. He knew he probably wasn't going to come back here again, so he wanted to remember it.

"Hey do you mind if we make a quick stop first? We've got some time until the train leaves anyway"

"Uh, yeah sure"

It was then that he noticed that they were in front of the cemetery, and he was also carrying some flowers. He followed Ed into the cemetery and up the hill where they stopped at a particular grave.

_Trisha Elric_

_1878-1909_

"You're mom?"

"Yeah" he said as he put laid the flowers on her grave.

"With the war going on I haven't been able to come see her lately, and I've only got two more days until they shove me back out there..."

Allen nodded. He understood what he meant. Anyone could die out on the battlefield, and he didn't have a choice to fight.

"I just wish I could've buried Dad next to her..."

Then he noticed that Ed seemed to be looking towards the burnt ruins of a house on another hill.

"What happened there?"

"That's the old family home. I burned down myself so that I would move on"

Then they heard a train whistle from the station.

"Crap! That's our train!"

They both barely made it in time, and were exhausted from all the running so they practically collapsed in their seats.

"That was close..."

Allen nodded in agreement and leaned back. There was only a few people on the train, and they were either far away or occupied by something so he decided it was ok to talk to him.

"Ed...I heard what you and your teacher were talking about"

His eyes widened, but then he calmed down and they softened.

"So it really is true then? Is that why they started this war? To make alchemy stronger?"

"That's part of it..."

Allen clenched his fist with anger. He suddenly hated the people who ran this country, they started a war just so people could die!

"Then what's the rest of it? Does it have to do with what else you found out?"

"Yes..."

"Then, what was it?"

"You'll find out soon enough"

Allen nodded glad he got most of his questions answered, but one still remained: Why did Ed bring him here?

"Man those seats are uncomfortable" Ed complained as they got off at Central.

Allen couldn't help nodding in agreement. Ever since he joined the order he had always traveled in the first class part of trains, and had gotten used to it.

"So where's this guy that we have to see?"

"Underground city, and if anyone asks you anything let me handle it"

Allen nodded figuring he had a cover story all figured out, and he hoped they didn't get separated. They went to one of the entrances to the underground city, and Allen stiffened when it was guarded by two soldiers, but Ed just flashed his pocket watch and they let them in with no questions asked. Then they came to an area that was also guarded with soldiers, but this one was different.

There was a large transmutation circle drawn on the floor with chalk, and Allen recognized it as the same one Ed used to send him and Lavi back to England, and sure enough the gate was there too. The two soldiers saluted Ed on sight, and raised an eyebrow at Allen, but didn't say anything.

"I need to update the circle, clear the area"

They both nodded and left the room without a word. The circle was getting worn down and faded, but he wasn't going to fix it now.

"Alright truth, I know you're there"

Then a figure appeared if front of Ed. He was just a white outline and was sitting calmly, but had a right arm and left leg.

"Come to yell at me some more alchemist?"

"_I have a question..."_

"_Oh?"_

_Ed sighed. Did he really want to know? It was bad enough just knowing, but if it was true then..._

"_I'm waiting"_

_Ed rolled his eyes at the Truth's impatience and just decided to get it over with. _

"_Is it true that alchemy was created to bring suffering and death?"_

_The truth smiled, then laughed._

"_You humans always seem to snoop around into secrets, that's one of the reasons I regret creating you destructive creatures. Yes, alchemy was created so that you would destroy each other, and I's say it's done a pretty good job so far. Ishbal and Philosopher Stones are perfect examples, and there's much more to come..."_

"_You..."_

_Ed eyes burned with rage, and he clenched his automail fist until the metal started to creek, but he couldn't get his words out._

"_I won't charge anything for this. Just keep using alchemy"_

"_**YOU BASTARD!"**_

_But the gate was already gone._

_**Author's Notes**_

**AND THE PLOT TWIST IS REVEALED! **But is it the only one? I tried to get this done before I went out of town, but I couldn't. The good news is I won't be leaving anywhere else any time soon, but school starts on the 18th T_T Not much else to say here, and I'd like to hear er- read your thoughts on this now *Coughs * review *Cough *


	11. XI Breakout

_**XI Breakout**_

"You're sure that's what you saw?"

Link and Levvier were walking down the halls of the Black Orders Asia branch. They had rounded up all the survivors of the order there and were now hiding from the Amestrian soldiers. Thankfully none of the exorcists had been killed, but most of the finders and scientists hadn't been so lucky when the old headquarters was invaded.

"Yes. Allen Walker seemed to be working together with an Amestrian soldier"

Allen had been missing for a few days, and when Link went looking for him he saw that he was with Ed.

"Then he is a traitor after all, just not the way we thought. He's probably the one who gave our location to them."

"**ALLEN DIDN'T DO THAT!"**

The two spun around to see that Lenalee had overheard their conversation. She seemed to regret saying that, and quickly covered her mouth.

"Is there something you should be telling us Lenalee?" Levvier asked suspiciously.

Lenalee gulped and wasn't sure what to say, but Kanda answered for her.

"It was Ed"

"Ed?"

Kanda nodded.

"About a year ago Edward Elric joined the Order. He was an alchemist, and could destroy Akuma with his alchemy, but after a while he suddenly left. We saw him in London two days ago in an Amestrian military uniform, and he admitted himself that he ratted us out"

"Was this Edward Elric the person you saw Link?" Levvier asked him.

"I didn't see his face, but he had long blond hair in a pony tail"

"That's him" said Kanda.

"Very well, but it still seems that Walker has betrayed us"

Allen hadn't spoken much since they had a conversation with the Truth. He had basically said the same thing about humans being destructive creatures that threw the world out of balance and should be destroyed, but he had taken it pretty hard. He had expected that, so he gave him some space and time to think about it all. They had gone back to Ed's apartment in Central he got for when he had to be in the area for a few days, and it was pretty quiet.

Allen had gone to the spare bedroom a while ago to be alone, but Ed didn't mind, he needed some time alone too. He really did hate the Truth, but he could see his point. Some humans were greedy or power hungry, and some like Hakuro started wars for no reason messing up the balance of the world, but he always came back to one thing: Where was Equivalent Exchange? Was Dante right after all? Did equivalent exchange, everything he believed in not exist? Then he realized what he was thinking and snapped out of it.

_Get a hold of yourself Elric! This is no time to get all depressed and emo! _He told himself.

He sighed as he sank back into the couch, and looked over at the phone.

_Right, guess I better make that call..._

A little while later Allen finally came out of his room. He had all the pieces now, but putting together the puzzle was still difficult. While he walked down the hallway he heard Ed on the phone, but he only caught the last part of the conversation.

"Yeah, anytime tomorrow is good. Just send me a message later when it's done"

Then he hung up, and seemed relieved about something. Then he noticed Allen.

"Oh. You ok?"

"Yeah..."

Ed knew he was probably still taking it pretty hard, after all he was questioning his beliefs now too.

_I just have to keep on moving forward. I promised Mana I would. _

He was going to stay an exorcist no matter what. Even if all the Akuma he destroyed just went back to the gate to be used as energy, that seemed better than leaving them alone for their souls to suffer. Then of course his thoughts were interrupted by his growling stomach and they both laughed.

"Got any food around here?"

"Not enough for both of us. We should probably just go out"

And so they did. On the way back Allen kept trying to put the pieces together in his head, but he still couldn't quite figure it out. Then he noticed Ed seemed worried about something.

"Something wrong?"

"They know my arm's fixed now, and knowing Hakuro he's probably gonna order me back on the battlefield tomorrow..."

Allen frowned and bit his lip.

"You can stay here and hide if you want-

"No. I wanna make sure everyone else is ok, plus I don't want anyone to think I'm dead or something. Do you think you can sneak me back?"

Ed nodded.

"Shouldn't be to difficult, just try not to die out there."

"You too"

They were silent for a few moments, then got back inside the apartment. That's when Allen decided to just ask him in stead of trying to figure it all out on his own.

"Ed. I've been trying to put all this together, but I just can't quite figure it all out..."

Ed sighed, then tossed his coat on the couch and sat down.

"I've been playing around with this theory in my head. We know that the Noah clan obviously doesn't have good intentions if they happen to win this war that you exorcists are fighting in, but what about the other side? Your 'god' said told us both what he thinks about humans."

"What are you saying?"

"I hate to say this Allen, but I think you're on the wrong side"

Allen's eyes widened. He wanted to say that he was wrong, but then he remembered what General Cross told him before he disappeared: _"There is more to this war then it seems"_ Is this what he meant?

"I'm not saying that the Noah are the good guys here, but the outcomes don't sound very good"

Allen nodded, and knew that Ed did have a point, but he hoped that his theory wasn't true. He would still keep his promise of course, and continue moving on the path he was on.

_Right for the humans and left for the Akuma..._

A while later they both fell asleep, but Allen woke up in the middle of the night because his left eye was bothering him. It still happened frequently, but he didn't expect it to happen in Amestris.

_There are no Akuma around here you stupid eye, can't you let me sleep?  
_

He felt more pain in response, and he sighed. He got out of bed quietly knowing he wasn't going to get back to sleep until it calmed down, and sat by the window so he could look outside.

"Can't sleep?"

Ed had apparently woken up as well and was standing in the door way.

"My eyes bothering me for some reason. I didn't wake you up did I?"

"No, just my nightmares" he said as he sat down next to Allen.

They were both silent for a while as they stared outside, then Ed suddenly spoke up.

"Are you afraid of anything?"

He blinked at his friend's sudden question it shrugged. He was afraid of the 14th taking over him and killing his friends like Cross had told him, but he didn't want to tell him that.

"I don't know" he lied.

"You?" he asked.

"Dying..." Ed said softly as he subconsciously touched the scar on his chest.

It had haunted his sleep nearly every night since Envy had tried to mess with his head and kill him. He didn't wanna die so young, he didn't wanna leave Al and Winry behind. Allen nodded knowing how he felt when Tyki almost killed him.

"Have you ever killed anyone Ed?"

"Only homunculi"

He tried his best only to wound people when he was out on the battlefield, and so far he had been successful. Then he yawned and rubbed his eyes.

"Well I'm gonna go try and get some more sleep. Hope you're eye feels better soon"

"Night then"

"How can you stand to wear this thing?" Allen asked the next day.

"Hey I hate it too"

Since Ed had to go back to the battlefield he was once again in his military uniform, and since he had to sneak Allen through the gate again he figured it would be the easiest way if he was in uniform too, but it was stiff and thick, not what he was used to at all. He couldn't wait to change back into his black exorcist uniform, it fit better and was much more comfortable. Ed tossed him a knapsack that contained his uniform so he could change later, then they headed out. On the way a few people glared at them, and one even purposely shoved past Allen roughly.

_Well that was rude. _

He didn't say anything though, he didn't want to get into any kind of trouble.

"Sorry about that Allen. A lot of people don't like the military, especially with all that's going on now"

"It's not your fault"

He actually felt bad for Ed that he had to deal with things like that. They soon arrived at the underground city, and were able to pass through the gate without any problems.

"There's an Amestrian camp about a half a mile north of here so I suggest you stay clear of it. You'll be fine from here on?"

"Yeah. Is that place empty?" he asked seeing an old run down barn near by.

"Should be"

Allen changed in there then gave Ed back his other uniform.

"So I guess this is another goodbye"

"Yeah, and be careful out there"

"You too"

Then they shook hands, and once again went their separate ways.

Al sighed as he sat on the cot in his prison cell. Like Hakuro had promised Ed no harm had come to him, but he was closely guarded, and one guard made it very clear to him from the beginning that if Ed disobeyed any orders, or he tried to escape they had direct orders to shoot him. He stayed put anyway of course, but he was scared.

Some of the other guards were kind to him and told him what was going out there in the world, but when he found out when Amestris was he really worried about Ed and was in constant fear that something would happen to him. He just wish he was allowed to hear from him and know that he was alright, but Hakuro wouldn't allow it. He told himself that if something happened to Ed then he would be released, so he was actually glad he was here to a certain extent.

He was just laying there thinking about Ed and hoping he was ok when an alarm suddenly went off. He heard many guards shouting followed by gunfire, and even the guards by his cell drew their guns and ran to see what all the commotion was. At first he thought it was a prison breakout, but he didn't see any of the other prisoners running around. Then he saw one of the guards literally fly by and hit a wall. He flinched when he heard the crash, and guessed someone had thrown him across the room.

But that meant that it was an intruder, and he thought that maybe Ed had lost it and come to get him. He heard two pairs of footsteps coming towards his cell, and he could tell that one of them had an automail leg. He walked up to the bars of his cell and was ready to give Ed a big long lecture about this that he was probably was not going to listen to, but it wasn't Ed.

"**TEACHER?"**

Wrath was with her too, and he had mistaken his mismatched automail footsteps for Ed's. His jaw dropped open and he really didn't know what to say. Izumi clapped her hands together and took care of the lock on the cell and opened the door for him.

"Let's go Alphonse"

"But-

He didn't want to escape and have Ed get in trouble for this, after all knowing him he was probably the one who set this up. However the glare he got and the tone she used prevented him from finishing his sentence.

"_NOW_ Alphonse"

"Yes ma'am" he said quickly before he followed them.

"You've got a message FullMetal"

Mustang handed him a piece of paper with a short coded message on it. It only took him a few moments to figure it out, and he smiled when he knew it was Izumi telling him that Al was safe with her now.

"You mind burning it for me?" he asked as he handed it back to him.

"After all the stuff I've burned in this stupid war I'd be glad to burn paper" he said as he took it and snapped his fingers.

They both watched as the ashes were carried away by the wind, then Mustang looked around before sitting down next to Ed and whispering to him.

"I also wanted to talk to you about something you should now kid"

"Don't call me kid I'm nineteen"

A few more months and he would be twenty. He really hoped the war would be over by then and he's live to see that day. Mustang rolled his eyes, and Ed glared at him.

"Anyway. A few days ago Falman found a corpse in the river."

"And?" he asked getting bored already.

"He said he's been dead about seven months-

"Can you just get to the point here?"

Mustang sighed and shook his head at his impatience, then continued.

"It was Hakuro's"

Ed's eyes widened, and he could tell that he was dead serious.

"But that's-

He thought about it for a moment. Seven months was right before the war, which meant that someone else had been pulling the strings all along.

_**Author's Notes**_

Ok. Well first things first I finally figured out the time line for this: So when Ed was in the order it was still early on in DGM (Like first season) then when he left and went to Amestris that's when all search for General cross stuff happened. The war started near the end of the anime (after all the ark stuff) and headquarters was invaded right before they moved. I hope that all made sense to you guys, and I am now all caught up with the manga.

In other news this story is coming to a close (about 2-3 more chapters, 4 at the most) but I'm going out of town again for two days, and like I said school starts on the 18th, and I also found out that my cousins are coming back in town for another week. In other words I might be pretty busy for a while, but it shouldn't be more than a week or two for the next chapter. And of course reviews keep my motivation up.


	12. XII Confrontation

_**XII Confrontation **_

"I can't believe this!"

"Get back here FullMetal!" Mustang shouted as he stormed off after his subordinate.

As soon as Ed heard the news he had stomped off angrily, and Mustang followed him when he realized he was going away from the camp and towards the gate.

"I said get back here!"

A few soldiers stared at them, but he ignored them.

_How can that freaking shrimp walk so fast?  
_

They were both in front of the gate when he finally caught up to him, and he quickly grabbed Ed before he could jump through.

"Let me go Mustang!"

"You know what will happened to you if you do this? You'll be charged with desertion, and they'll hunt you down"

"It won't be the first time I've been a fugitive" Ed reminded him as he shrugged him off.

"You know what this means right? It's pretty damn obvious that 'Hakuro' isn't human"

"That's why I don't want you going off to fight him alone"

"I'll be fine General, I've killed homunculi on my own before. Besides if you come with me you'll get in trouble too, and you need to hurry up and become Fuhrer so we don't have any more fucking wars like this"

Mustang sighed. He couldn't believe he was being told what to do by a kid.

"Fine. Just don't die, that's an order"

Ed nodded. He had given the same order to him when the war started.

"I'll see you later then General"

Passing through the gate was as easy as always, but first thing was first: He was getting out of this stupid itchy stiff uniform. He went back to his apartment and changed, then headed to the Fuhrer's mansion. He figured the place was crawling with guards, so he tunneled under the place with alchemy and ended up in the basement. After carefully and quietly sneaking around the place he found 'Hakuro' in his study.

"Who's there?" he demanded.

"Our little deal is off Hakuro" he said sternly as he came into view.

"And I know your little secret too, so there's no use hiding it"

With that he sent a glare at the imposter and drew out his automail blade. There was a bit of a standoff between them, then Hakuro's true form was revealed, and it wasn't what Ed had been expecting at all: It was Lulubell, the Noah of Lust.

"You..."

Now it all made sense why the war had been started in the first place, and he also remembered he had been unconscious for a little while when he accidentally opened the Gate for the Earl, so someone could easily had gotten through and no one would've noticed.

"I surprised you found out Edward" she said.

"Next time you kill someone I suggest you hide the body better" he said as he took a fighting stance.

"Are you really going to try to fight me?"

"I don't die easily, and you're still human"

"Well that may be, but we don't die easily as well, and I didn't come alone either"

With that she snapped her fingers and a Level 4 Akuma burst through a wall catching Ed off guard.

"Shit"

He didn't even think about that! He mentally hit himself for being so stupid, and jumped back out of the way.

"Kill him" Lulubell ordered.

Before Ed could even blink he was hit and the force of the blow threw hit against the wall and made it crack. He thought for sure something was broken, and he coughed up some blood too. Still, even then he ignored the pain and slowly stood up. A loud clap rang out from the room before he touched the wall behind him, then it exploded sending dust flying everywhere.

He used that moment to escape. The guards outside were everywhere in a panic trying to figure out what was going on, but thankfully none of them saw him. He ran down the streets trying to get as far away as possible, but he was also heading towards the gate. He had to tell Allen and the others what was really going on here after all, then maybe, just maybe they could work together to end this hated war. He paused near an alley way to catch his breath, then he heard the child like voice of the Akuma.

"You didn't think you'd get away from me that easily did you alchemist?"

Ed gasped and spun around, but the Akuma was faster and stronger than him. He clapped his hands and was just about to get a hold of it and destroy it when he was thrown at another this time weaker wall. He flinched at the pain before he hit the ground, then the wall collapsed and came down on top of him. The Akuma waited a while for Ed to climb out of the pile, but he never did. All that was visible was part of his automail, and he didn't even twitch. So eventually he went back to Lulubell and reported that Edward Elric was no more.

_**Author's Notes**_

Alright before you guys get all " You murderer!You killed Ed!" or anything like that, wait until the next chapter (hint hint) I'm sorry it took a little while, but I was pretty busy with family and pre school shopping and stuff, and then of course when I had a bunch of spare time my stupid eight year old piece of crap PC got infected and I couldn't even open open office (or anything else besides the internet) but it's fixed (for now).

There's one long chapter left, and I wanna say I wanna have it done by next week, but that's probably not gonna happen. That stupid virus put me behind on this (I would probably be done by now) plus school started today and I found out that I have a art project due every two weeks not to mention other homework, me moving into an apartment, and my birthday being in about 12 days. I will try and get it done before then, then I'm probably gonna take a writing break here...


	13. XIII Truce

_**XIII Truce**_

Ed groaned as he climbed out of the pile a while later. The truth was he had blackout for a few minutes, and when he finally woke up and climbed out the Akuma was long gone. He coughed a few times from the dust, then leaned against the wall for support. Nothing seemed to be broken like he thought, he just ached all over. He reached into his pocket and checked his watch: It was still pretty late, he had plenty of time before the sun started to rise. He sighed, then headed towards the gate.

"That was still a stupid thing to do FullMetal"

"Yeah yeah give it a rest already"

He had successfully made it through the gate once again without anyone seeing him, then he tracked down Mustang and told him what happened. The good news was that Mustang and his team had covered for him. There had been a big battle shortly after he left, so Mustang pulled some strings and got him listed as MIA instead of him being accused of desertion. The bad side was that he couldn't let any other Amestrian soldiers see him otherwise he'd be shoved back into battle, but he was used to sneaking around by now.

"So you're going to try and track down the exorcists?"

"Yeah. I need to tell them what's really going on with this war"

He was going to have to act fast too.

"Do you think they'll trust you?"

"I really don't know, but Allen will stand up for me if they don't"

"Alright, just be careful out there. And don't-

"Don't die, I know."

Finding where the exorcists were was the hard part. He had no idea where any of them were, he wasn't even sure if Allen knew himself and caught up to them. He just hoped nothing bad had happened to him on the way. As he wondered around in the night he heard footsteps, and he instantly flattened himself against a wall in case it was a soldier. He couldn't believe his luck, it was actually a finder. He seemed to be headed somewhere quietly and occasionally would stop and look around for any Amestrian soldiers, and after Ed had watched him for a minute he decided his best choice was to follow him.

So he trailed a few feet behind the finder staying close to the shadow and walls just in case he needed to hide from him quickly, and he was sure he stayed in his sight. After a few blocks they came to a church, and the finder quickly went inside. Ed hesitated, but still continued to follow him. He opened the door quietly and peaked in, only to see the finder go through some kind of portal. He blinked, then looked around. No one else seemed to be around, so he went inside and walked up to the portal. Was it like the gate? Curious he stuck his hand through, then pulled it out. It seemed safe, but he still wasn't sure about this.

_Guess there's no turning back._

He took a deep breath, then stepped through.

Allen _had_ gotten there safely through one of the gates with the arc, but he hadn't received the happy welcoming from everyone like he thought he would. Sure his friends like Lavi and Lenalee were glad to see him and that he was alright, and Kanda had been his usual silent self, but apparently Link had saw him being carried by Ed after he knocked him out, and he had been labeled as a traitor to the Amestrians. He had defended himself of course and told Levvier what really happened (except for a few things like the gate) but he didn't seem to believe him.

So now here he was stuck in his room with his left arm bound tightly like the last time he was allowed to talk with Cross. Link was still watching over him, but keeping a very close eye on him. He was pretty used to it by now, but since they had been on the run from the Amestrians and gotten separated he had gotten some privacy, and now he really missed that privacy. He sighed as he leaned his head against the wall and wondered how Ed was doing right now. Then he heard a lot of sudden commotion going on outside and he sat up.

His eye didn't detect any Akuma in the area, which meant it was something else. Had the Amestrians found them again? He paled at that thought, after all if that was the case then many more of them would die, and he would get blamed for ratting them out. He had to see what was going on, and Link was nice enough to let him leave to check it out. There was a bit of a crowd around where the ark was, and he heard many people shouting at once. He was only able to make a few things out as he gently wormed his way up to the front to see what was going on.

**"****HE'S AMESTRIAN!"** said one.

**"****HE BETRAYED US!" **said another.

That's when he got close enough to see what was going on, and froze when he saw that it was Ed that everyone was yelling at. He didn't protest against what they said or struggle against the people who had grabbed him to restrain him; his eyes were dim and full of guilt. Then Levvier showed up and the crowd parted for him. He glared at Ed, then spotted Allen and roughly grabbed him by his shirt.

"You! You DID betray us! You gave away out location to an Amestrian soldier!"

"Allen had nothing to do with this!" Ed spoke up now enraged.

"I found a portal leading me here on my own by chance, that's all"

Levvier glared at Allen, but released him and walked over to Ed.

"What is it that you want?" he asked coldly.

"I just want to talk. I know something about this war you should all know, and then we can end it without anymore massive violence"

That caused many people to start whispering to each other, and Kamui spoke up:

"Inspector, I think we should here him out"

And so they did, in a more private place of course. Ed was released, and all the exorcists plus Kamui, Bak, Link, Levvier, and a few others heard him out in Bak's office.

"So you're saying that Lulubell started this war with Amestris on purpose?"

"Yes. I barely managed to escape from her and that Akuma"

"Well it _does_ make sense, after all the Noah family does want us all dead"

"And that means Ed didn't betray us after all" Lavi pointed out.

"What?" Ed asked now interested.

"Yeah, she attacked our old headquarters before the war started"

_THAT BITCH! She was just playing with me! Oh when I get my hands on her..._

Now Ed _really_ wanted to kill her.

"I obviously can't take her on again alone" he said controlling his anger.

"If some of you would be willing to help me it would help a lot"

"And how do we know that this isn't a trap?" asked Levvier.

"How do we know you won't betray us as soon as they're in Amestris?"

"Ed wouldn't so that!" Allen defended him.

"But how would we sneak through the Gate? Isn't it guarded?" asked Lavi.

"I could make a new gate using the ark" Allen suggested.

"I believe we should trust what Ed has told us and go through with this" Kamui told Levvier.

"I agree" said Bak.

Several people in the room nodded in agreement. Levvier wasn't happy with this at all, but it looked like everyone disagreed with him on this.

"Fine. Link, you go with them"

Link nodded, and Allen, Lavi, and Lenalee all decided to go with Ed. Using the ark was successful, and they ended up in the bedroom of Ed's apartment in Central. However shortly afterword they heard someone else walking around.

_Damn! It's probably the military or something._

"You guys stay here, I'll check it out" Ed told them.

He quietly clapped his hands together and transmuted his automail blade before he walked out into the hall staying as close to the walls as possible. He heard two pairs of footsteps, and when one of them was about to turn the corner and spot him and spun around and pointed his blade at their throat.

"Whoa! Brother it's me!"

Ed blinked a few times to make sure he wasn't seeing things before he lowered his blade.

"Al?"

What was he doing here? He was supposed to be in Dublinth with Izumi, and why was Wrath with him?

"He's ok now brother, I promise" Al said catching Ed's glare at him.

"But what are you doing here?"

"I came to lecture you actually" he said firmly as he shoved yesterday's Central paper in his face.

The big headline on the first page read **"FUHRER HAKURO ATTACKED!" **and hada big black and white picture of the ruined part of his mansion from the outside.

"I figured you had to have something to do with this. You're always running off and doing stupid things when I'm not around"

Ed laughed nervously as he transmuted his automail back to normal, but Al wasn't done.

"And making a deal with teacher to break me out of prison? Really Ed?"

Ed rolled his eyes at that one.

"Oh sure don't thank me for that or anything." he said sarcastically.

The two brothers were silent for a moment, then Ed suddenly pulled Al into a hug.

"It'd good to see you Al."

It had been months after all.

"They didn't hurt you did they?"

"No brother, I'm fine"

Then he caught the sight of the others sticking their heads out the room and watching.

"Can you at least tell me what's going on?"

So Ed had to go through what he found out about Hakuro/Lulubell, and all that other blah that he was getting tired of explaining. Al kept noticing that Ed would glance over at Wrath every now in then, so he explained that after he had gotten his automail from Winry he wandered around for a while, then went to live with Izumi and Sig. He wasn't evil anymore, and they had decided to raise him as their own. He still had his hair really long, but it was neater now, and he was wearing more sensible clothes: Khaki pants and a blue T shirt. His automail was exposed, and he seemed to like walking around barefoot all the time. He basically was like when they first found him, except that he couldn't use his alchemy anymore because he lost Ed's limbs, and he wasn't all crying and winy (No one was complaining about it though).

When he saw the paper he told Izumi that he wanted to check on Ed. She agreed after a little while, but sent Wrath with him in case the military found them.

"I wanna fight with you"

Ed frowned at that.

"You know I can defend myself and help you guys brother so-

"I know you can Al, but you're not in the Armor anymore; you can get seriously hurt."

"But-

"I'd feel a lot better if I knew you were safe back here."

"BUT-

"PLEASE Al" he begged.

Al felt guilty after seeing the look of worry on Ed's face, so he gave in.

"Alright..." he said softly.

"So do we have a plan?" Lavi asked him.

"Not really. We still have surprise on our side, and I mainly need you guys to deal with any Akuma she has while I take care of her"

"Taking a Noah on all by yourself? Are you sure that's a good idea Ed?"

"I've fought and killed Homunculi before, and Noah are still human. Besides, once you guys destroy that Akuma you're free to help me out if I need it"

"This is how I got in last time" he said as he transmuted another tunnel outside the Fuhrer's mansion.

One by one they crawled in, and all ended up safely inside. That's when Allen's eye activated, and he could easily tell that it was a level four. As soon as he saw the condition the soul was in he looked away and tried his best to ignore it, but it was hard.

"We better be careful, it's a level four" he told them.

"Great" Lavi said sarcastically.

_No wonder why I had such a hard time against it. _Thought Ed.

After all he had only faced up to level two, and he knew they got stronger each time.

"Is it the only one?" he asked.

"Yeah"

"Good" Ed and Lavi chorused.

"Alright then. You guys go with Allen, I'll track down Lulubell"

They nodded, and went their separate ways. Ed transmuted his automail blade before he started sneaking around upstairs, and everyone else activated their innocence when they got closer to the Akuma. They all found their targets, and they both took them by surprise.

Ed saw her coming around a corner facing away from him, so he quickly and quietly clapped his hands together and transmuted spikes from the floor heading towards her from behind. Unfortunately she noticed at the last moment and jumped away to dodge them. Her eyes widened when she saw that it was Ed.

"Surprised to see me alive?"

Her expression hardened and she glared at him.

"You really are foolish thinking you can come back a second time and take me on"

"You're still human, and that little Akuma of yours is being taken care of so I wouldn't count on him to save your ass or anything" he said as he took his fighting stance.

"You'd kill your own kind?"

"We're nothing alike!" he said with a glare.

"That look, so you've killed before."

"Enough of this talk" he said.

"**LET'S JUST END THIS!"**

Even with three exorcists all focusing on the same target it was still hard to destroy the level four. However with all of them working together rather well they were able to get it done. They all were exhausted by the end of the fight of course, so they rested against the wall for a few minutes before looking for Ed. They found him passed out against a wall on the second floor hallway, covered in blood.

"**ED!"**

They all ran over to him to make sure it was ok, but he was just passed out from exhaustion, and it wasn't even his blood that had stained his clothes either. That's when they noticed the state of Lulubell, and Lenalee quickly looked away not wishing to see it again.

"What did he do to her?"

It was a long hard fight, and in the end Ed saw that they only way to kill her was to act like a murderer, so he deconstructed her using the knowledge he knew of the human body.

"Well at least it's over now"

When Ed woke up he was back at the apartment in his bed, and Al was leaning over him.

"Brother! You're awake!"

He had to blink a few times to adjust to the morning sunlight, then he sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"What happened? How long was I asleep?"

"A few days actually, you were exhausted. How do you feel?"

"Hungry"

Al chuckled at that knowing it was something only Ed would say, so he told him what happened over a nice big breakfast. After Lulubell was killed Mustang had assumed the role of Fuhrer since he was next in line, and immediately declared a cease fire and proposed a treaty to England. Everything was signed quickly as expected, and the Amestrian troops began to withdraw. Allen and the others went back to their world, but stayed close by. They wanted to say goodbye to Ed before all connections with the two worlds were closed permanently.

"Hey brother" Al began.

"If this is about a cat the answer is still no" Ed told him flatly.

"Actually, it's about the other side"

"What is it?" Ed asked now curious and hoping it wasn't something bad.

"You told me about all the doppelgangers and stuff work, and I sort of have theory on that..."

"Well then spit it out already!"

He was now really curious and getting impatient.

"Do you think it's possible that Allen is _your _doppelganger?"

Ed blinked and realized he might actually be right. They had a lot in common, and they really did look alike when both of them had long hair. He just couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it before.

_~FIN~_

_**Author's Notes**_

Sorry for the wait, but it was long like I said, and I've been pretty busy with school, and literally just moving today. Sorry for the lack of some epic action scenes, but I'm just not good at writing them...At all. So yes that is the end of this, BUT if you guys want it I can do a sequel. Please tell me what you think in a review, and even if you don't want a sequel vote on my new profile poll so I know. Like I said I'm gonna slow down on my writing here since school a pain in the ass these days, but I'm still gonna write stuff (just won't post it until it's all written). So, please review!


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